Why this Charlotte candidate did ‘laps around my house’ after 2024 election victory
When Lucy Silverstein got the call, she started tearing up right away. She thought she’d lost.
It began with a ”Thank you for applying. We’re calling everyone,” kind of thing.
”And I just was thinking it was the worst case scenario,” she said.
Her mom was recording as Silverstein sat on the floor and listened to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Executive Director of Board Communications Charles Jeter on the other end of the line. When he told her she’d won the election for 2025 student advisor to the CMS Board of Education, her mom started crying, too.
“We both screamed, and I was physically shaking. I couldn’t sit still. I was doing laps around my house,” Silverstein said. “I had never really understood crying of happiness until having that feeling of achieving something that I’d worked so hard for.”
Silverstein had been elected in a district-wide race among eight other finalists. All CMS high schoolers were eligible to vote. Silverstein’s term will begin in January, after the current student advisor, Ailen De Bonis from Ardrey Kell High School, finishes the 2024 term.
The student advisor position was created in 2016 as a way for students to connect with the board and have their concerns represented. The student advisor attends each of the board’s meetings and is able to offer opinions on board decisions. However, the position is not a voting member of the board.
“Traditionally, when boards are talking about policies and things happening in schools, they’re not actually in the schools every day, but the students are and they can share their lived experience,” Amy Farrell, executive director of GenerationNation, told The Charlotte Observer.
Her organization was founded to help Charlotte-area students learn about civic engagement and leadership.
GenerationNation also runs the CMS student advisor election and helps candidates through the process of running a campaign. It continues to meet with the elected student throughout their term as the advisor.
“I hope students, whether it’s the student in the role or not, feel like their voice matters and that they’re considered in policymaking and decision-making and feel engaged in that process,” Farrell said.
Silverstein is a junior at Providence High School and carries a confidence beyond her years. She says she’s not afraid to put herself out there — a skill she credits to her involvement in theater productions at Providence and other local venues around Charlotte. Right now, she’s preparing for the school’s spring production of “All Shook Up,” a musical mash-up of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits.
She was inspired to run because of challenges she had as a young student with ADHD and dyslexia.
“I remember being in middle school and my learning needs not being addressed,” she said. “I don’t want other students to have to face the same issues I had to face, and I really hope I can make a true difference.”
Most of all, she wants to be someone students trust with their concerns, who can effectively advocate on behalf of the more than 140,000 students in the district.
“There’s a stigma around asking for help, and I want to eliminate that stigma,” she said. “Especially with everything going on in the world right now, I just want to make sure students feel safe mentally and physically. Everyone is able to do their best work when they’re in a safe environment.”
Silverstein admits she hadn’t heard of the student advisor role before this year, and as she talked with fellow students while campaigning, she found most of them hadn’t either. She wants to change that.
“I want to increase student participation and get students to come to board meetings and be interested in what decisions are being made and how that happens,” she said.
