Meet the Chatham Student Elected to His Hometown School Board
Eli Majocha ’27 stands for a portrait outside of the Jennie King Mellon Library. (Mick Stinelli)
It was a day before signatures were due to the Allegheny County Board of Elections, and Elijah Majocha ’27 still wasn’t sure if he wanted to run for his local school board. After class at Highlands High School, he asked his choir instructor for advice.
“I asked him, ‘Would you support me if I ran for school board, since you’re in my voting region?’” Majocha recalled. “He said, ‘I will support you no matter what, but remind yourself that you are 18.’” That was all Majocha needed to hear; he worked up until midnight gathering signatures in support of his candidacy.
The next day, Majocha and his father were in Pittsburgh, turning in 46 signatures. Majocha was a candidate for the board of Highland School District. On Nov. 7, voters officially elected him as a member of the board.
On Monday, Dec. 4, he was sworn into office. For the 18-year-old from Natrona Heights, who’s majoring in political science in his first year at Chatham University, it’s the culmination of years of volunteering and his first step into the world of professional politics.
During an interview in the Jennie King Mellon Library in late November, Majocha said he first came to the campus on a tour, where he learned about the University’s emphasis on its core values. “They were very strong on sustainability, which was one thing that I really stood for,” he said. “I was like, I think this would be a great fit to continue my path into political science and sustainability.”
“It’s a very diverse community,” he said of Chatham. “You get to make friends from different perspectives and different viewpoints.”
After developing an interest in the political process during eighth grade, Majocha said he spent much of his free time in high school volunteering for local politicians and get-out-the-vote campaigns.
Some residents chastised him for being too young, he said. They told him that he couldn’t even vote yet, that his brain wasn’t fully developed, that he’d grow into different political opinions when he got older.
It didn’t faze him much. Plus, he said, it’s normal for people to change their minds about an issue as they learn more about it.
“That’s the message I like to say to people: no matter if you’re 18 all the way up to 80, your mind will change throughout the time you’re alive,” Majocha said.
Many people were supportive of the young politico’s passion, Majocha said, with positive comments on his campaign’s Facebook page outweighing the trolls. His parents were supportive, too, but hesitant at first. When he spoke to his father shortly after conferring with his choir teacher, they ran through a pros and cons list.
On the positive side, Majocha calculated, he would be able to relate to students as a peer while also maintaining a good relationship with teachers, students, and officials at the school district. On the other hand, his youth would make him an easy target for ire, especially at a time when culture war controversies have made school board meetings even more polarized and politicized. Ultimately, his dad gave his blessing, as did his mother, to go forward with the campaign.
Although he still didn’t know what committee he’d join after becoming a board member, Majocha said he wanted to focus on creating more opportunities for hands-on learning at Highlands School District. In high school, he and a science teacher put together a proposal for an educational greenhouse; the structure hasn’t started construction, but the proposal has been passed by the school board.
The main idea with the greenhouse, Majocha said, was to integrate lessons about sustainability into regular classroom discussions for all ages, as well as teaching young people about food systems. He envisioned it as something that could open students up to information about fresh, locally grown produce while also giving them something that ties in with regular lessons; for example, foreign language classes could take trips to the greenhouse to learn the names of the vegetables growing there.
Since he was nominated for the post in May, Majocha already knew there was a solid chance he’d be joining the school board by the end of the year, so he spoke to his academic advisor at Chatham to make sure there wouldn’t be any conflicts between his class schedule and board meetings. His mom also emphasized that, if he was to be elected to the board, his focus would need to be on his education at Chatham. Majocha, however, didn’t see the election as a distraction from his schoolwork; it was more like a head start.
“I said, ‘I can start my career early, Mom,’” he recalled. “I can get a jump start, and this will have me sticking out in an application more than anyone else.”
Mick Stinelli is a writer and digital content specialist at Chatham University. His writing has previously appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 90.5 WESA, and WYEP.org.