Op-Ed Co-Authored by Charlie McGeehan, Frank Molina, and Aster Chau

At its best, civic education doesn’t end in the classroom — it leads to real change in the community. That’s exactly what happened when students in Charlie McGeehan’s 11th and 12th-grade Social Science Honors class took on a project exploring youth access to public spaces. What began as a conversation about city budgets and underfunded parks turned into something much bigger: a youth-led effort that sparked the passage of a City Council resolution in Philadelphia.

In this op-ed, Charlie and two of his students, Frank Molina and Aster Chau, reflect on what it took to turn research into action, and why student voice isn’t just a talking point. It’s a force for change.

Charlie McGeehan (CM): Students enter my classes at different levels of previous civic engagement. Frank was new to advocating with local elected officials, while Aster had a lot of experience with that type of work coming into the class. Aster had been a leading youth organizer in the coalition to oppose the building of a new Philadelphia 76ers arena that would displace our city’s Chinatown. They also had experience writing, speaking, and testifying before City Council prior to this project. 

After going through a process of building consensus around class focus issues, we ultimately decided that your class would focus on two issues – public transportation and access to community spaces for young people. You both decided to focus on community spaces – why?

Frank Molina (FM):  I was particularly upset by the lack of general lounge spaces accessible because I often wanted to get out of the house, but didn’t have places to go unless I was willing to spend money or be uncomfortable. Parks, specifically, were the most accessible and also the most underfunded. Places like libraries aren’t necessarily funded either, which is also part of the larger issue, but parks and recreation centers, lacking the necessary funding for upkeep, stood out to me as an important issue to tackle.

Aster Chau (AC): We surveyed students at our school and gathered that parks were mostly accessible but unwelcoming. This led us to examine the budget for Parks and Recreation. We discovered that the budget was extremely low compared to both other cities and to other sections of Philadelphia’s budget, which has also decreased over time. Personally, I thought about my experience with Ginger Arts Center. This community space opened during the fight against the arena as a space for students to rest, learn, and grow in ways that didn’t feel molded. I spent most of my time there and realized just how important these spaces are to youth. Before Ginger Art Center, I didn’t have a place to lean back on. However, with the opening of GAC, it allowed me to practice vulnerability within a community that welcomed me with open arms. 

CM: A huge part of our action was our meetings with Councilmembers Bass and Phillips, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Parks & Recreation Committee. You both played a major role in both of those meetings – coordinating, presenting, and asking questions. What was your reaction to meeting with some of the top decision-makers in Parks & Recreation in Philadelphia?

FM: All of these meetings and interactions with Councilmembers felt sort of surreal when thinking about the hierarchy of it —simple high schoolers reaching out to political figures that directly affect how the people of Philadelphia live. I didn’t feel very confident that we would hear back from anyone at first, but then, I started emailing back and forth with Councilmember Phillips’ legislative director, Cykhira Walton, and Aster helped me get in contact with Councilmember Bass. The class put a lot of effort into preparing our presentations and it really paid off. During the meetings, it really felt like these people were listening to us and even appreciated hearing from us.

AC: The minute I began interacting with the council members, I felt a mixture of shock and numbness. I had spent months advocating for Chinatown in front of council members who stared blankly at me— adults that tuned me out even if I was speaking into a mic because it didn’t seem to matter how loud I was, but instead who I was — a high school student. The whole process felt dismissive. It felt strange to see two of the same Councilmembers engage with our presentation whilst sitting in our classrooms. This moment struck a chord with me because I can still remember the satisfaction of feeling heard– the eye contact, nodding, and note-taking felt validating.

CM: At the end of our meeting with Councilmember Phillips, he said he was going to find a way to implement one of your ideas – more youth voice in Parks & Recreation decision-making. When we actually got word that he would be introducing legislation, what was your reaction?

FM: Again, it was kind of a surreal feeling. The fact that CM Phillips had even listened to us in the first place was awesome, but his decision to implement one of our ideas was even better, especially within a short amount of time after our meeting. The feeling of months of hard work paying off is something so incredibly satisfying.

AC: I was doubtful at first, as CM Phillips seemed hesitant. He mentioned how young people used to have nice things, but now don’t. He claims that that kind of stigma is the first thing Council thinks of when youth spaces are brought up. So when the legislation was introduced, I was shocked. It felt like a step towards accountability and recognition; young people have valuable perspectives and deserve a voice in decision-making. It was rewarding to see the work put behind a project branch off to an even bigger message.

CM: As you look back on this entire year-long project, how would you evaluate our success?

AC: Seeing all the parts come together from our visuals, research, and presentation prep for Civics Day was already so rewarding. Our sub-groups allowed us to tackle different tasks, combine our strengths, and communicate effectively to bring the whole project together. We succeeded in bringing a part of our vision to life, but there’s still work to be done. We will continue to keep pressure on adults to truly listen to young people, but for now, we’re holding onto this win and everything it represents. 

FM: Considering we quite literally influenced a whole bill to be passed in the span of a couple months, we were pretty successful. In the time that we had and with the resources we had, I think we accomplished a lot. Changing a whole system is never easy, and to fully improve community spaces as a whole will take a lot of time and even more money. Who’s to say there will ever be a stopping point when it comes to improving these spaces? Ultimately, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to achieve our overarching goal of making public spaces better quality and more accessible, but we were very successful in our smaller goal to be heard when it comes to our concerns.

CM: You both came with us to Council on the day the bill would be passed and spoke at the session. Aster – this wasn’t your first time attending or even speaking at a Council meeting, but Frank it was for you. What was that experience like on that particular day?

FM: It was so nerve-wracking because I had never gone to a meeting before, let alone spoken in public like that. The Council meeting felt long and tedious, and I was making myself even more anxious waiting for my time to speak. Despite all of that, it was very liberating to have so many people listen to me speak about an issue that I care about. I am glad I took this opportunity to speak. My only regret is that they cut the length of my speech down to 1 minute at the last second, and I couldn’t give my full speech. But I would do it again.

AC: I felt nostalgia: cutting down my script and still going over the timer brought back memories of my prior testimony. I wanted to include my classmate MJ, who presented beside me for Civics Day and the Council class visits. She read the beginning portion of my script that addressed our goal and work towards youth involvement in Parks and Rec. As the timer went off, I rushed through the last part of the script.  I said that it is important for youth voices to be integrated into city decision-making and beyond that, and that it’s easy to be immobilized by fear, but that we need to use our resilience to overcome it. And the whole time I was speeding through that script, I was shaking and I lost the lines where I was reading.

CM: Generation Citizen is going to publish this blog post, and hopefully other teachers will see our story and implement similar projects in their classroom. What advice do you have for teachers hoping to do these types of projects in their classrooms?

AC: Young people need classrooms where their voices are genuinely valued and where they’re given real opportunities to share their insights. This can look like teachers stepping back to let students lead conversations and focusing on amplifying student voices rather than directing them. Unfortunately, when young people are routinely silenced or dismissed, it leads to a systematic denial of their voice, which can be both stigmatizing and disempowering. Projects that center youth voice push back against this pattern.

FM: I agree with Aster that allowing students the freedom to work on things that really matter to them and giving them the space to voice their thoughts and feelings is probably the most important thing when it comes to a project like this. Young voices can be so influential, so they deserve to be heard. However, what really helped me was being pushed out of my comfort zone to take opportunities and do things I’ve never done before.

This project is a testament to what’s possible when young people are trusted with real civic power and when educators create the space for that power to grow. What began as a classroom conversation evolved into direct policy change, driven by students who dared to ask for more: more funding, more dignity, more voice. They didn’t just present research; they told their stories, stood in their truth, and showed up in rooms not built for them. And in doing so, they changed the conversation.

For anyone wondering whether student voice can shape policy, the answer is yes. It already is.

You can watch Frank’s and Aster’s testimony before the City Council and see that change in action.