By Tom McClimon
June 23, 2003

Working to increase the participation of young people in local government service and the electoral process, the Conference of Mayors and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University launched a "Summer in the City" internship program for college level students.

Announced by Conference Executive Director, J. Thomas Cochran and Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, Dan Glickman, the program will send 12 students to cities for the summer to observe how cities are working with young people in local government. The cities selected by Harvard with consultation with the Conference are: Akron, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Miami, Nashville, Long Beach, Oakland, and Washington, D.C. as well as the Conference of Mayors headquarters.

"We have been looking for ways to involve young people in city government and we are pleased to be working with Harvard on this project," stated Cochran in announcing the program. "Studies show that young people are a huge untapped voting pool", Glickman stated. "We hope that this project will help us identify new ways to get more young people involved."

At the conclusion of their internships, the students will be compiling "best practices" of successful youth involvement programs that can be replicated by other cities. It is planned to expand the "Summer in the City" program in following years.