CU student appointed to CB7

The Upper West Side’s local Community Board 7 will meet a fresh face on Wednesday when Columbia student and native New Yorker Louis Cholden-Brown, GS/JTS, begins his two-year term as a board member.

Cholden-Brown, a student in the double-degree program at the School of General Studies and the Jewish Theological Seminary, was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to the position last Saturday following a lengthy application process.

Cholden-Brown previously interned for 18 months in the office of City Council member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, where he began to develop his political voice.

“I got very interested in community affairs and in working with my neighbors and the constituents in the community,” he said. “I started to notice not that the youth voice was stifled, but that there really was no one of a young age involved in these things.”

Cholden-Brown said that his American Urban Politics course, taught by Barnard professor Flora Davidson, was a motivating factor during the board application process.

“Louis mentioned this earlier in the term, and I’m delighted that he has been appointed,” Davidson wrote in an e-mail. “He is one of the top students in the class.”

Cholden-Brown said that he hopes to focus his efforts on education reform, particularly “the need for more schools, more seats, and more classes,” though he has not yet received his committee assignments.

“There’s a lot of development in the community that’s going to bring more families into it, which exacerbates the need to take a long and serious look at how our school system is serving our kids,” he said.

Cholden-Brown said he intends to go from GS/JTS to graduate school for a degree in urban policy or public administration, and he ultimately hopes to work in the public sector.

The constituent region of Community Board 7 extends along the Upper West Side from 110th Street down to West 59th Street.

Maggie Astor can be reached at maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com.