MANSFIELD — Brandon Polak got to put his political advocacy skills to the test on Capitol Hill this month.
A junior at Mansfield Senior High School and member of the city of Mansfield parks board, Polak represented the state of Ohio during this year’s YMCA Youth Advocate Program.
We sat down with Polak to hear more about his trip to the nation’s capital. Below is a transcript of that conversation, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Richland Source: So, how was D.C.?
Brandon Polak: It was great. It was a new experience for sure. Something that really stuck out to me is how many people there were from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. There were 42 states participating, so all these kids coming from different states and their YMCAs leaders — it was really interesting to listen to their stories. That was one of the most impactful things for me.
Then there was meeting senators and the congressmen, meeting their staff, walking around in the Capitol, doing all these fun things. I think it reassured that’s something I want to do in my life is work in Washington.
Richland Source: As a youth delegate, you had to do some interviews and create a community profile prior to going to DC. Who did you talk to?
Brandon Polak: So we did four months of planning and meeting every month via Zoom with all the kids from all of the states and the leaders of the program. I met with our local Y first. I met with (sports and teen director) Stephen Greene and he’s a really nice guy. I interviewed him about various things that our local Y participates in. So that was really interesting to hear local stories from a local YMCA.
My second interview was via Zoom with my legislative partner Ria Rana from Texas. We talked about the differences between our congressional districts. She’s from Dallas, Texas, and her congressional district is pretty much Dallas, Texas. Whereas, here in Ohio, our congressional district is Richland and all these surrounding counties. We compared our Congressmen. Ours is Jim Jordan, he’s a Republican. Hers was a Democrat from that area. So seeing some of the committees that they’re on, what some of the legislative priorities are, is really interesting.
Third, I met via Zoom with the leaders of the Ohio YMCA Alliance and also Youth and Government leaders Mary Burleson and Jeff Litten. They told me what to expect and scheduled my meetings on the hill.
It was cool to start with the local YMCA, then go to the state YMCA, listen to a partner from Texas and then go to Washington. Going into it, I thought things would be completely different at each one. But the Y’s legislative priorities as a whole, they all pretty much aligned with each other.
Richland Source: You also had to create an advocacy plan and choose a legislative priority. What did you end up going with?
Brandon Polak: I looked over all of the legislative priorities with the YMCA, there’s quite a few. The main thing I focused on was called ‘Building a sustainable future.’ The Y was going and advocating for more funding for national park programs through the YMCA for kids. I am on the Mansfield Parks Advisory Board, so that’s something I wanted to do. I think parks are awesome, whether it’s a local park or a national park. The Y’s programs are fantastic and they need more funding to allow for more kids to come through them. So that was the main legislative priority I focused on. We also touched on some of the other big priorities of the Y, like civics education. We need more funding for civics education and the YMCA helps with a lot of it.
Richland Source: How do you define a sustainable future?
Brandon Polak: It can go in many directions, but I think a sustainable future means children learning about how we can protect our environments, protect our ecosystems, care for nature and build a future that is going to be sustainable. I think that’s part of what the YMCA is doing with its national parks programs is getting kids out in nature and saying, ‘This is how things work out here. This is an ecosystem and these are the steps we need to take to ensure that 100 years from now, this is still here.’
Richland Source: Who did you meet with in DC and how did that advocacy work kind of play out there?
Brandon Polak: First I met with Congressman Greg Landsman’s staff. He is a congressman from Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, which is in the Cincinnati area. It was my first Capitol Hill meeting ever. I got to see how things run behind the scenes.
Then I met with Congressman (Brad) Wenstrup’s staff from Ohio’s 2nd District. He’s a Republican. Greg Landsman is a Democrat. So it was interesting to see how their priorities differed and that was cool too because we had a long list of priorities. I wanted to focus on building a sustainable future, but we were able to kind of morph that plan a little bit. So I met with his staff too, and then met with Senator J.D. Vance’s staff. Senator Vance was supposed to be there. He was not there and as I’m leaving and walking down the hallway, I’m not paying attention and Derek Summerville, (Director of Youth Advocacy, Voice & Civic Health for the YMCA of the USA) was walking with me. He goes, ‘Did you see who that was who just passed us? It was J.D. Vance.’ So he turns around and he’s like, ‘Mr. Vance, Mr. Vance, this is your youth advocate from Ohio. He just got done meeting with your staff.’ So we grabbed a quick picture and that was kind of neat.
The next day I met with Senator (Sherrod) Brown’s team. He was not in D.C. He was back here in Ohio, so I didn’t get to meet with him.
Then I ran into some different lawmakers in the hallways. We actually had a congressional breakfast on the last day. Amy Klobuchar was there and spoke. Senator Angus King and Senator Chris Coons were there. The Senate chaplain spoke.
Richland Source: Did you get to kind of talk about your legislative priority and pitch potential solutions or was it more of a conversation?
Brandon Polak: The first meeting I went to, there was a lady from the Cincinnati Y with us and she actually knew the staffer that we met with, so it was really laid back. It was a conversation, back-and-forth. We were throwing out ideas about the Y, telling our stories. He jotted down a couple of notes, but was really just there listening and pretty receptive.
During my second meeting with Congressman Wenstrup’s representative, she probably wrote down every word that came out of our mouths. We did all of the talking. J.D. Vance’s team, they were receptive but they didn’t really write down anything.
Sherrod Brown’s team had a few staffers there. They did a great job of being receptive, taking notes. So it was interesting to see how you interacted with different people in these different meetings. Overall, I think the message of this is something we can do in a bipartisan way. This is not a Democrat or Republican thing. I think that got through, hopefully to all of them.
Richland Source: So how do we build a sustainable future in a bipartisan way?
Brandon Polak: I think if we can build a sustainable future, the best way to do it is through the YMCA. Let’s go out into nature, into our national parks, let’s bring the YMCA with us. There needs to be more funding for that. The package they were looking at was $100 million in funding for these programs. I would go into, ‘This is a way that Congress can come together in a bipartisan manner.’ This is not something that is Republican or Democrat aligned. I think we all have some sort of connection to a YMCA, some sort of connection to a national park and this is a way that we can come together, teach youth about national parks and get them involved.
Richland Source: What kind of programming would this entail? Would it be new or would some of it be expanding on things the YMCA already does?
Brandon Polak: I think most of it was expanding on things that the YMCA already does. The YMCA has a plethora of programs, especially when it comes to national parks and parks in general. Some of those programs could use more funding to allow for more students to be able to attend.
Richland Source: How is the Y currently partnering with the National Park System?
Brandon Polak: I think it varies from state to state. The YMCA is the largest child care provider in the United States. I think it’s something children can get more involved in, the childcare programs can partner with National Parks, they can have outdoors programs there.
Richland Source: Do you have any plans to continue advocating for a sustainable future here in Mansfield?
Brandon Polak: I want to continue advocacy as a whole for the Y’s legislative priorities through building a sustainable future. Also, the civics education, because what better education than civics education? I want to look into finding more ways to advocate without being in Washington D.C. and talking to Congressmen.
Richland Source: Who were you most excited to meet on Capitol Hill?
Brandon Polak: Well, I really wanted to meet Sherrod Brown and talk to him, but he wasn’t there.
It was really neat meeting Senator Amy Klobuchar. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with her, but I got to meet her. That was really cool. I think overall, it’s just exciting to meet as many people as possible, and it’s not just congressman. We had a networking reception where I met CEOs of YMCAs from all different states. It was really cool meeting all those different people.
Richland Source: What are some of the lessons that you think you’ll take away from this experience?
Brandon Polak: I think one thing, and this is something that we all should learn to do, is to not judge a book by its cover. I’m going to circle back to hearing all the different stories, and hearing these different perspectives. Going into it, you learn that how you got there maybe isn’t the same as how somebody else got there.
One of my biggest takeaways was that people’s stories are so different from mine. I live in a small little world in Mansfield, Ohio. There’s different stories in Mansfield, of course, but when you start getting out there and hearing people’s stories of how they got to where they are, I think it’s really eye-opening.
One girl’s family immigrated from Russia and she was talking about how, after the Russia-Ukraine war, she suffered bullying just because her family was from Russia.
Richland Source: Is there anything else that you encountered that surprised you or changed the way you look at things?
Brandon Polak: I think the biggest thing was learning the halls of Congress weren’t in the Capitol building. You have the senator’s office buildings, the representatives’ office buildings. I didn’t realize all the buildings surrounding the Capitol, those are the actual halls of Congress.
Now that I know, it makes a little more sense. You can’t have 535 offices in there.
Richland Source: What kind of impact did your time in D.C. have on your own goals for the future?
Brandon Polak: Well, I think it reaffirmed that I want to be in the political system. I want to help people, whether it’s the YMCA, helping children or helping people in general. Seeing how that starts with lobbying for a bill, advocating for pieces of legislation, you really see that you can have more of an impact than you think.
Richland Source: Do you still want to be a senator one day?
Brandon Polak: Oh, definitely. But I learned that the congressional staffers are really the people that carry a lot of the weight around there. The staffers have a huge impact on what’s happening because they’re essentially the reporters to the congressman or woman.
This story idea was suggested by a reader. Do you have news tip for our team? Submit it here.
