Kane County Reporter

The Geneva City Council met on April 3 and welcomed a pair of students to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and discuss their community engagement project that involves art and Arbor Day tree planting.

"We've got our two students who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance who are here tonight to talk to us a little bit about a really cool program that we are all familiar with and the community is starting to gain traction with as well," said Mayor Ken Burns. "And that is an art program, featuring, honoring, reflecting, memorializing the importance and beauty of trees in our community."

The students, Mia Kellen and Brandon Cowhey, are members of the student government at Geneva High School. They are also co-chairs of the City Hall Student Group. The students work with the mayor and school district to create a connection between the local government and students in the district. The students spoke about their current project, which is a student art competition to promote the Geneva Pathway Program. The program is set up so residents pay a fixed cost to have a tree installed in their front yard, with the city covering the remainder of that cost.

Brandon and Mia told council about the art competition for the local elementary schools, which teach first through fifth grades, to commission students to create art related to trees. This project has an open prompt to encourage students to use their imagination. The winning entries will then be put into a calendar that will be distributed at the end of the summer.

The students fielded questions from Burns about their involvements in the community. Both said they were heavily involved in civic organizations. Mia has plans to attend the University of Michigan next year to study architecture and Brandon is hoping to be accepted to the United States Naval Academy with his backup being airline management studies at Purdue University.

The deadline for the contest is Monday, April 17. The council thanked the students for their involvement and helping keep Geneva green.