The Student Member of the Board (SMOB) is a high school student who serves as a voting member on the Montgomery County Board of Education and provides insight on matters pertaining to MCPS schools. They receive Student Service Learning hours, an honors-level social studies credit, and a college scholarship of 5,000 dollars. In Maryland, MCPS is one of two counties that have established this position. The 46th SMOB will be elected for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year through the votes of MCPS secondary students, and one of the members running for this position is Faith Nah.
Faith is a Poolesville High School junior who has both a unique and vested history in student advocacy. Nah was in MCJC, started a club advocating for menstrual equity, and continues to fight for legislation relating to career opportunities and a comprehensive health education framework. She also helped pass MoCo Bill 33-22, a bill supporting affordable housing, by testifying in front of the Montgomery County Council.
“As a candidate, I have a unique experience,” Nah said. “I grew up in the Montgomery Village Gaithersburg area, but then I attended middle school in the DC area at Argyle, and then I now go to the smallest high school, which happens to also be in rural Montgomery County. And throughout that entire process, I’ve seen firsthand the blatant segregation and inequity that Montgomery County has.”
Her platform and campaign revolves around the central theme of equity. Some of her focus points include improving mental health and wellbeing, improving school lunches and the Free and Reduced Meals program (FARMS), reforming health curriculum, and increasing funding for period products.
When it comes to mental health, Nah aims to legalize mental health days and an annual day off in May after AP and PARCC testing. From her viewpoint, this would provide students and staff a break after a stressful few months.
In addition, Nah asserts MCPS’ health education curriculum is flawed and needs to be reformed due to the disengaging, scripted content. “There was this one lesson where they had a Google slide telling us about gang related activities and why kids on the streets, who tend to not have a huge network of support, are isolated because they kind of are seeking out that kind of connection. And then that later leads to problematic issues like drug use,” Nah said. “The underlying issue of health education isn’t doing enough. Students know what sex and drugs are, and when you dumb the content down in middle school and you wait until seventh grade when realistically in sixth grade, they could be like offered drugs and have no idea that that decision is going to alter the course of their lives.”
She plans on advocating for a more proactive curriculum, entrusting students with necessary and reliable information at the right time to prevent future crises. “In Montgomery County we continue to boast that we are providing a world class education. We are so proud of our diverse student body, but we continue to fail to acknowledge those who live in certain communities and clusters facing racial and income based disparities. And, ultimately, like when our county is letting students slip through those cracks, I kind of think that hurts our community on the whole,” Nah said.
Nah’s goal to close the opportunity gap stems from her personal experiences with disparities in the community. “She embodies the student voice and just her speaking for others who do not have a voice as a student who attended schools in three different regions…she has an experience of growing up in Gaithersburg and living in community where 76% of the students at her home elementary school did not have were on FARMS, so she sees the [opportunity] gap in MCPS,” junior Ava Milisits, Nah’s policy and outreach coordinator, said. “I see her drive and determination every day at school when it comes to what she’s fighting for, whether it’s testifying, writing legislation, and honestly just talking to students day in and day out about what she is pushing for.”
Though some of her policies overlap with those of past SMOBs, Nah intends on expanding on their ideas. “Hana O’ Looney did a great job of bringing the menstrual equity conversation to the forefront of the table and helping to ensure we would have dispensers, but the simple truth is that it is not enough,” Nah said. “The [dispensers] contain really cheap pads and then after that they’re kind of empty… this isn’t a conversation that just ended with Hana O’Looney’s term.”
Addressing the concerns of students invested in making a difference policy wise, she lays out the framework for creating tangible change. “In order to solve these different issues when it comes to the poverty that occurs in this county that period poverty, and honestly the marginalization or segregation in this county, you have to start with what schools have these resources which schools don’t have the resources and get to the why and get to the how, and that’s why Faith can be different than everyone else because she will address the why and the how,” Milisits said.
Nah already implemented various forms of outreach outside her campaign, including hosting virtual town halls such as a Neurodivergent Town Hall. She plans to connect with students through a constant input and feedback loop. “If you don’t see the person who’s representing you, you don’t have that face to face interaction sometimes. Then it is a little bit more difficult, so something I am guaranteeing is, if I was elected SMOB, I’m going to visit xyz schools on certain dates to make sure if you don’t have access to Instagram…you can still kind of offer me that input and I’m still making the time for students directly to speak to me,” Nah said. “I don’t want to be one of those SMOBs who are elected and then not really heard of.”
As a final message for all high school and middle school students, Nah emphasizes her commitment to the role. “My passion fuels me, and it’s mainly because of my passion for what I do and why I think I would be a good fit because I care so deeply. Running for SMOB was never really my one dream or goal or anything that I was planning. It was more so the next natural step in the progression of my advocacy journey,” Nah said.
If you are interested in Faith’s platform, check out her Instagram, Linktree, and website.
Written by Anshi Purohit of Richard Montgomery High School
Photo courtesy of Faith Nah