Hello! My name is Jazelle, and I’m currently a Junior at Los Lunas High School, and this is my first year being part of the Evolvement leadership team. Evolvement is divided into two campaigns 24/7 and No Minor Sale. 24/7 helps prevent tobacco use, possession and distribution within school grounds and property with our 100% tobacco-free policy. It is very important to me to implement more regulations within schools to prevent the use of tobacco on campus because it is addictive and it takes away from a student’s ability to fully be productive. This is what led me to accept the opportunity to speak during public comment at the Grants-Cibola County Schools board meeting. 

Two hours prior to the meeting, everything in my head was in a haze. I was so worried about how I could possibly give my statement and not make a fool of myself in front of so many important people. The whole purpose of the meeting was to make a third attempt at convincing the board to adopt a fully comprehensive tobacco-free policy. The thought of messing up was hard to think about yet that’s all I could think about. However, despite the craziness going on in my head, the campaign manager’s small words of encouragement gave me the push I needed to clear my head and feel confident in myself and my public speaking abilities. Upon logging onto the Zoom meeting, I was very nervous. I don’t know if it’s just me but being in that position made me feel like I had the power to make some serious business decisions. When the meeting started, the overall environment was very professional, and kind of intimidating. I was so grateful that I wasn’t the first one called to speak. I got to listen to others make their speech and that put me more at ease about mine. When my name was called, I took a deep breath and started my statement. While I was speaking, the main thing going through my head was time. I was most worried about how fast I was talking but also about the 2–3-minute time limit. When I was done there was a long pause. At first, I thought I did something wrong, but when the speaker broke the silence, I was brought back to reality. A few minutes after my speech, I took my leave.

From this experience I was able to better my speaking skills, and I got to experience a professional school board meeting. I can only hope that the meeting allowed the board to deeply consider adopting our policy. I imagine that the board leaders will see the effects of tobacco on minors and that knowledge along with my speech will persuade them to take actions necessary to make a change. Only time will tell if our perseverance in the Grants-Cibola County School District will be impactful. But we will continue to push until a change is made. 

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