A cohort of students in the cities of Hurst, Euless and Bedford just wrapped up an immersive program guiding them through the nuts and bolts of local government.
They met city officials, attended classes and meetings, and reflected on their experiences, gaining a new appreciation for the civic process.
About 20 upperclassmen from high school programs throughout the Hurst-Euless-Bedford area streamed into the Hurst Conference Center with their families.
They were greeted by a spread of finger food and sodas, with tables arranged so everyone could enjoy a meal together while listening to the speakers at the podium.
Trinity High School junior Shiden Tesfazion, who just completed the multi-week, intensive 2026 Youth In Government program, gave a speech before certificates were awarded.
"I thought Euless, Hurst, Bedford are just small cities and they don't have as much importance [as] Dallas, but that's actually wrong," he said.
Tesfazion added that during the program, he learned about the high levels of passion city employees have for their work.
"It inspired me to think more about governmental issues and have more passion towards it," he said.
Now in its fifth year through the HEB Chamber of Commerce, the program introduces students to the form and function of local government.
Classes put students in conversation with mayors, city council members, first responders, and city department employees, like in public works and finance.
It's a crash course in what officials do, and how their work directly impacts residents' lives.
Dan Cogan is the mayor of Bedford. He's also a sixth-grade science teacher in the HEB ISD system and, for this Youth in Government cohort, said one of his former students was elected its class president.
"As a teacher, it makes me extremely proud to see one of the former students up there pursuing their interests in government and knowing that perhaps I had a little bit to do to spark that interest," he told KERA.
Cogan said he was surprised to see most students in this year's class express an interest in participating in local government themselves.
"I asked, raise your hand if you think you might be interested in perhaps running for office one day, and I was surprised to see a good majority of them raise their hands," Cogan said.
Madison Clemson, a junior at L.D. Bell High School, is thinking about how local government could intersect with a future career as a healthcare provider.
"I eventually want to be a medical professional and open up my own practice, but with that comes a responsibility to take care of the community you're in," she explained. "So, I want to be a part of the city council and to make my mark."
Clemson said her favorite part of the program was learning from first responders.
"These workers, they shared their passion, how they have to risk their lives every single day to defend our area, make sure everyone is safe, and it really just spoke to me," Clemson said.
Part of the program's graduation requirements involve students attending a city council meeting or town hall forum, volunteering at a city or local nonprofit event or shadowing a city employee for a few hours.
Those who wanted to be considered for scholarships did at least two of these outside-of-class activities and wrote essays about their experiences.
HEB Chamber President and CEO Mary Frazior said this program, done in collaboration with the cities of Hurst, Euless and Bedford, is one of the chamber's best.
"If you think about our students, that's our workforce of tomorrow," Frazior said. "Those are our residents and citizens of tomorrow."
Frazior emphasized the importance of local government, saying that municipal-level decisions affect people's day-to-day lives the most.
"Most people do not know much about local government, or even at the state level," she said. "It's more they know what's going on on the federal level because that's more in the news."
At the end of the graduation ceremony, students walked away with a certificate of completion, a swag bag full of items from each city and new perspectives on what makes the services around them tick. Four of them each received a one-thousand-dollar scholarship from Republic Services, a waste management company.
Then they finished up their food, left the municipal-owned and operated conference center, and drove home on roadways brought to them by their local governments.
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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