Graduate School
Brandeis University

Undergraduate School
Gordon College

Mentor
Lissy Medvedow, Executive Director, Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School and Rappaport Institute Advisory Board Member

Agency
City of Boston, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

Supervisor
Jaclyn Youngblood, Chief of Staff

Description of Fellowship
At the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, in partnership with the Department of Youth Engagement and Employment (DYEE), Ronesha worked to rethink and propose a new model for the Youth Lead the Change initiative. Youth Lead the Change is the City of Boston’s youth-led participatory budgeting initiative that allows youth ages 12-22 to decide how to spend $1 Million of the City’s capital budget. After holding feedback sessions with youth participants and multiple city departments throughout the summer, Ronesha worked with DYEE to draft a proposal that would address the current challenges in the process and propose changes that would allow the program to run more efficiently and create a larger impact.