Raaheela Ahmed sat in a wide circle last Tuesday with dozens of supporters, waiting for the precincts’ reports to unfold on her computer screen.
By about 11 p.m., freshman biology and business major Ahmed saw she beat four candidates in the District 5 primary elections for the Prince George’s County Board of Education, winning by nearly 1,000 votes over six-year incumbent and school board chairperson Jeana Jacobs. Although Ahmed is one of three college students to win district primaries in the county this year, at just 18 years old, she is also the youngest.
“We were so happy the voters decided I was a serious and hardworking candidate,” she said.
In addition to being fresh out of the Prince George’s County school system – she attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School – Ahmed said her experiences at this university have helped her gain perspective on the challenges facing the county’s schools.
In particular, she has enjoyed mentoring with Partners in Print, an America Reads, America Counts program that promotes reading and learning at home, and working up to 15 hours a week as a program coordinator for Health Leads, a student-run organization that connects patients to health care resources.
Ahmed said traveling to county schools up to three times a week with Partners in Print has also helped her “catch on” to issues and disparities within the county.
“You get to see the quality of the schools as well as the interaction of the parents and the students and seeing those type of things going on, it really does bring a good perspective,” she said.
Olayinka Omishore, a senior community health major who works with Ahmed in Health Leads, said she was not surprised when her co-worker announced her run for office.
“She has an old soul in a young body,” Omishore said. “I’m not surprised she’s gotten so far either. I know she’s worked hard for these primaries, knocking on doors every Saturday, going to meetings; she’s done everything it takes.”
District 4 school board candidate Micah Watson said he thinks being “recent customers” of the school system could give Ahmed an advantage in serving the county.
However, he said college students lack other beneficial experiences, such as being a parent or balancing a job with paying a mortgage, car loans and student loans. Two University of Maryland Baltimore County students, District 8 school board incumbent Edward Burroughs III and District 1 school board candidate David Murray, both won their primaries.
“Even though they come out of the school system, they don’t really know yet how the school system did a good job or bad job preparing them,” he said. “They didn’t work in an office where they realized they didn’t get trained in school to do X, Y and Z.”
However, Ahmed said there is more to serving on the school board than managing the system’s $1.6 billion budget.
She would like to see better communication between all levels of the school system, from students and administrators to bus drivers and building managers.
“I think on the basic level, the one thing we need is communication,” Ahmed said. “Communication is one way to show transparency and accountability and also address the needs we have in our community.”
In the November general election, Ahmed and Jacobs will be the sole candidates for the District 5 seat.
Jacobs, a 1989 university alumna and adjunct professor at University of Maryland University College, wrote in an email that she has experience advocating for the county’s students.
“I look forward to continuing the difficult but most rewarding work I have ever done – advocating for our most vulnerable, our world’s future, our children,” she wrote.
Although the election is about seven months away, Ahmed said it never leaves her mind.
“I go to sleep thinking about the campaign every night,” she said. “I’m taking a class in accounting, and then somehow I’m linking it to budgets and linking it to campaigning.”
Although she is getting an early start on running for public office, Ahmed said she does not consider herself a politician.
“I think when you’re in office, you’re there to help people,” she said. “But once it becomes a career that you’re in office, that’s when you start to lose focus on what’s important.”
lurye@umdbk.com
