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Community Corner

Local Teens Step Up to Library Leadership

Northern Tier Library Teen Advisory Board brings youthful point of view.

Sarah Boyce doesn't look any older than the teens she's laughing with at the 's monthly Teen Advisory Board meeting.

This group was started by Boyce, who was hired by the library last year to oversee its teen and young adult programming. She has wasted no time in getting the input of area teenagers into her programming plans, which have grown by leaps and bounds since she arrived.

One of Boyce's pet projects is the Teen Advisory Board, which meets monthly. They discuss programming and event ideas, as well as book ideas for the book club and serious topics, such as their collective love of author John Green, whose signed bobble-head doll is the group's mascot.

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Seriously, that's not a joke. Green, a self-proclaimed nerd, is an inspiration for these teens, who are determined to make it OK to be intelligent, involved and, as member Kait Hudok puts it, "To not be vapid."

They are anything but. Hudok, 16 and a junior at , likens the teen board to a non-religious youth group.

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"You do things your parents agree with, with people they'd like, but it's more intellectual," says Hudok.

Becky Olson, 17, adds that teen board gives her the opportunity to meet people from other schools she'd never get a chance to meet.

The meeting starts with less than a full house. There are quite a few teen board members, but they don’t all come to all meetings.

At this age, they are often loaded down with homework, have other extracurricular activities, have jobs, and many of them still rely on others for rides to and from their destinations. This is also the time of year when indoor practices begin for spring sports. Boys are scarce, but, says Boyce, this doesn't tend to be the kind of thing that interests boys in general.

The teen board members discuss their upcoming event, the Zombie/Unicorn Prom, planning crafts and games and trying to puzzle out how many attendees they'll have for the Feb. 18 event. They decide on the craft for their next craft program, which is held monthly at Pine-Richland High School, and talk a little about their next book club selection. There's a wide variety of readers here, and a lot of different suggestions.

Boyce has started a bulletin board and suggestion "can" for the teens, to help them advertise their programs and to give them the opportunity to offer ideas for books they'd like to see added to the young adult collection.

One thing they're all interested in is spreading the word about the library's teen programming, and, for today's kids, the best way to do that is online through blogs, websites and Facebook. They're thinking of starting an online book review site, written by the teen board members, and Boyce tries to gauge the level of interest in the board members potentially becoming writers for that site.

The teen board members do get National Honor Society volunteer credits for going to meetings, but Hudok says this is something she'd do even if she didn't get credit for it.

The others agree, and the obvious fun they have at the meeting backs that up.

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