By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Some public boards and committees include students as token members. Finding a student to join allows committees to check off a box. Finding one who actually attends meetings is an extra bonus.
Ellie Boyle, a senior at Bowling Green High School, has never seen her role as symbolic on the city’s Human Relations Commission. Neither have her fellow HRC members – who recently elected Boyle as chairperson of the commission.
The Bowling Green Human Relations Commission has 11 members appointed by the mayor. With the goal of making sure Bowling Green is a safe and inclusive community, the commission has taken a proactive stance on enacting laws that protect against discrimination as well as passing resolutions condemning violence, hate speech and proclaiming the community as welcoming for all.
Those goals are in complete alignment with Boyle’s beliefs. She is a member of BRAVE (Black Rights, Advocacy, Visibility and Equity), and volunteers with Not In Our Town, Firefly Nights, Black Swamp Arts Festival and on political campaigns.
Boyle was nominated to the leadership position by BG Police Major Justin White, who serves with her on the Human Relations Commission.
“She’s been with us for almost three years,” White said. And she brings a different perspective. “She is young and adds some energy. It provides different insights.”
And obviously, Boyle is committed to bettering her community, White said.
“For a high school student to get up on a Friday and be there at 8 a.m. is pretty good,” he said.
Boyle took a leadership role with the commission earlier this year, when she acted as emcee of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King program. She worked alongside Anthony King, founder of BRAVE.
King said Boyle is a dynamic young leader.
“Ellie is an amazing student and leader in the BG community and beyond,” King said. “She is dependable, persistent, and also has a refined understanding of the power of diversity in any space including HRC.”
King talked about Boyle’s work with BRAVE.
“She has been working with BRAVE since our early stages in development and has always provided amazing work quality. I’m sure that this is just the first of many in a life leadership for Ellie,” he said.
Boyle, the daughter of Joe and Katie Boyle, admitted to being a little nervous when she first took on leadership roles in the community.
“I didn’t know about politics or the life of public servants,” she said. “But I fell in love with it.”
And she was immediately welcomed on the Human Relations Commission.
“I wasn’t looked down at. I was encouraged to have my voice,” she said.
Boyle believes groups like the HRC can make a real difference in Bowling Green.
“It gives us leverage and a leg up to make real change,” she said. “I definitely want to bring more people of color on board. As white people, we don’t understand the difficulties of people of color in our community.”
Boyle plans to major in political science at BGSU next year, possibly attend law school, and work on political campaigns.
She met President Joe Biden when he was vice president, during an American Cancer Society event in Washington, D.C.
“That was definitely monumental in shaping me,” she said.
When she was 13, Boyle canvassed the community with her dad to get voter support for Hillary Clinton. She still remembers the disappointment of that loss.
But Boyle has her own dreams of bettering the world – on the HRC and beyond.
“I hope someday to run myself,” she said.
