<p>Eric Cox: In Aurora area, a 15 year old's getting a rare opportunity to create real change in schools across the state. Illinois Math and Science Academy, or IMSA, junior Dhruv Patel as one of just 21 high school students selected on the State Board of Education Student Advisory Council.<br /><br />Dhruv Patel: Oh, I'm so grateful for being able to have this opportunity. It's so amazing to be able to do so much work for not only the IMSA community and not only my regional community, but for students across the states. It's truly an honor to be able to hold this position, and I look forward to working with the team and implementing change that, not only affects current students, but becoming students in the coming generations too.<br /><br />Eric Cox: Patel says he'll be helping the state board address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on schools across Illinois. The council will also spend time creating a new framework to ensure student's safety and focus on finding ways to lessen the achievement gaps separating students of color and their white peers, no doubt widened as a result of the pandemic.<br /><br />Dhruv Patel: Well, not only finding those inequities and researching them, but actually taking action on them. So making sure that we're reaching out to specific school districts and taking action on what we find potentially, what we're trying to do is making sure that our efforts are very data-oriented, evidence-oriented and finding specific kind of metrics to say that like, hey, this is what's happening in your school district.<br /><br />Dr. Evan Glazer: What's so great is it aligns with our own priorities at IMSA.<br /><br />Eric Cox: IMSA president Dr. Evan Glazer applauds Patel's appointment to the State's Student Advisory Council calling it, "a position the 15 year old's well prepared for."<br /><br />Dr. Evan Glazer: Dhruv is actually engaged in equity work among the student body at IMSA. And so this is really a perfect fit given the committee he plans to serve on.<br /><br />Eric Cox: IMSA's board of trustees established an equity and excellence policy years ago. The school also offers a program called Pure Multi-cultural Educators, or PME, a group of student leaders working to educate their classmates on issues involving equity. Patel's a part of that program too.<br /><br />Dr. Evan Glazer: We have to think about how we provide support to students in distinct ways to recognize that their backgrounds are different, their identities are different. Building a sense of community and helping students from all different types of backgrounds and identities feel connected as being part of a community is really super important on a social emotional side.<br /><br />Eric Cox: Despite all IMSA's done on the DEI front, president Glazer admits there's always room for improvement. Patel's confident he can help his school keep moving in the right direction.<br /><br />Dhruv Patel: What I learned at the statewide scale, I really want to take that back to the IMSA community and see how we can improve equity at IMSA school. In fact, I think I've really recognized that I'm really interested in the DEI efforts in making sure that every student, regardless of their identity feels included, and I think that's really shaped the way that I want to go into the future.<br /><br />Eric Cox: We're Talking Cities, Aurora. I'm Eric Cox.</p>