Griffin Diven has wanted a career in politics since he started high school.
"I could never think of a specific reason why, but it's always just been very interesting to me," said the Wilde Lake High School senior.
While he dreams of one day working in the foreign service — he loves to travel — for now Diven has won a political role much closer to his Ellicott City home.
This month, he begins a one-year term as the 2016-17 student member of the Howard County Board of Education, more popularly known as SMOB. He will be sworn in at a school board meeting in August.
The hardest part of the position, Diven said, will be getting the confidence to speak up and "say something you believe in."
"It's going to take a few weeks," he said, "but I'll get comfortable."
Diven campaigned for the position against Brooke Walker, a senior at Atholton High School; both were nominated to run for SMOB in early March by a panel of student government representatives and members of the Howard County Association of Student Councils. All middle and high school students in the county were permitted to vote in the race.
For six weeks leading up to the April 20 election, Diven visited as many schools and met as many students as he could around the county.
"I really did not expect it to be as intense," the 17-year-old said. "I was on my phone so much just trying to find people to follow on Twitter. My opponent — she was really great and she really pushed me to work hard."
Diven takes over from SMOB Rachel Lin, a senior who graduated from Howard High School in May.
"When I got the call that I got the position, my heart dropped," Diven said. "It was like the first time I was truly speechless.
"I've just had a really good community of people who have helped me get to this position, and I know when I have an issue in the future, there's going be someone I can go speak to."
Lin, who is headed to University of California-Berkeley this fall, said that Diven will make an "amazing" representative for students in Howard County.
"From his whole application and the process he had to go through to become SMOB, it was clear that he is very personable with students," Lin said. "And he's doing so much with social media now, and his involvement in politics at his school before becoming SMOB will help him in the position."
When Diven found out about the SMOB election at a Howard County Association of Student Councils meeting earlier this year, he saw it as an opportunity to further his political involvement.
"SMOB plays a big part in community politics. The more I started to think about it, I thought, oh, this is almost the perfect thing for me to do," he said. "It's really about talking to others and engaging in political conversation."
Diven has already done this through a youth politics club that he and his friend started at Wilde Lake High last December. So far, the club has hosted a mock election as well as a debate on immigration.
Diven also served as communications director of his school's student government association. He hopes to use this experience to inform students around the county about his new role on the board.
The SMOB was established as a non-voting position more than three decades ago and more recently the Student Member of the Board was granted voting rights, except on personnel and redistricting matters and a few other topics delineated in Maryland law.
"I think a lot of kids don't even know what SMOB is," Diven said. "They heard about the election and in six months they're going to be like, wait, who is that? So I want to make sure kids are going to keep on seeing me. I want to make a presence through social media, through Twitter."
Equality and the county's dress code are two topics the upcoming senior would like to address.
"Students should feel like they're equal to every other student in the classroom, regardless of their differences," he said. "So they never should feel like there's an issue because of their gender, sexuality — they shouldn't feel different or like they've been put on an unequal level."
About tensions in recent months between the Board of Education and members of the community, Diven said, "My thing is, I'm going on the board with a clean slate. What's going to come to me is going to come to me. I'm really just going to serve on the board to serve the students."
Diven is ready to dedicate a couple Thursday nights each month to board meetings, he said, and has already observed a few meetings to prepare.
"I think it's worth it," he said. "You're going to be able to do a public duty to others who will hopefully appreciate it and see how much I'm sacrificing. Because I want to do this, and I want to make sure the student voice is heard."