She’s a talented dancer, an ambitious student advocate, an energetic cheerleader, and a generous community volunteer. Meet Brooke Lieberman, a sophomore at Urbana High School, who was elected as your Student Member of the Board.

Ever since she was in grade school, Lieberman has been making a change in her community whether it’s been by donating to countless food banks, managing a drive to help animals in shelters, or creating fundraisers to aid those struggling during the pandemic.

At Urbana High School, Lieberman has served as the President of the Buddies for Life Club, as a BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) board member, as the Historian of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts, and as the Captain of the winter cheer team. She has also participated in the school’s Student Government Association and Red Cross Club.

Brooke held most of her leadership positions in BBYO. BBYO is a leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement aspiring to involve more Jewish teens across the world in fun, affordable, and meaningful Jewish experiences.

In BBYO, she was previously president of Fundraising and the Communications Chair. Currently, she is the president of Recruitment & Membership and part of both the International Leadership Network and the International Recruitment Committee. As president of Recruitment & Membership, she is in charge of recruitment and she recruits new and old BBYO members into programs. “I have been in BBYO for 3 years. I first served as a positivity chair when I first was on the BBYO board; it wasn’t that big of a position but it inspired me to run for more leadership,” Lieberman commented.

Although Lieberman has accomplished so much in the past year, she considers being elected as Frederick County’s Student Member of Board her biggest accomplishment. Her one-year term officially begins July 1, 2023. Until then, she will shadow current SMOB Lucas Tessarollo from Gov. Thomas Johnson High. 

The role of the Student Member of the Board (SMOB) is to bring diverse student viewpoints on educational issues to Board of Education (BOE) meetings. SMOBs also are expected to improve communication between the student body, staff, and BOE members, and inform students of board policies and decisions. “I wasn’t really expecting to win because I’m a sophomore and all the other candidates were juniors so when I got the email that I won I was very shocked; I thought it was going to be something very everlasting and a very big accomplishment that I’ll be able to look back on,” Lieberman explained.

In her SMOB candidate speech, Brooke expressed her desire to work on issues concerning mental health awareness and equitable opportunities for students. As Frederick County SMOB, she hopes to provide teachers with more mental health training and provide each school with mental health therapists, cool-down corners, and therapy animals. She also wants to provide stronger financial assistance for students who need help paying for athletic uniforms or standardized test fees.

Lieberman’s intention to run for SMOB wasn’t present at first. She first wanted to run for class president but was unaware that the class election had ended. But when she noticed that SMOB applications were opening up, she saw it as another opportunity to run for a position to advocate for students across the county. So, she took it. Lieberman watched the videos of past SMOBs and developed her campaign on her Instagram handle (@brookeforsmob). 

During SMOB campaigning, Lieberman was inspired by another student’s ambition to design a school garden. “There was one student that I met in particular in FCASC. He had so much passion; He wanted to create a student garden to make it possible for composting to happen in our schools and he literally was just a 6th grader. Though people voted against his idea, he was so passionate about it which really inspired me. He had the passion and drive to really go forth with something,” Lieberman recounted. While in her basement, she eventually got an unexpected email notifying her that she was elected as SMOB.

In her free time, Brooke Lieberman likes to play with her dog named Hope. “We adopted her in 2014 or 2015; I love her so much and she is so sweet,” she added. She also loves to bake her grandma’s chocolate chip cookie bar recipe, work at Sage’s bakery after school, hang out with friends, and eat sushi with her family. “My favorite food is sushi; it’s so good! My favorite place to get it is in Germantown. My entire family eats it and whenever I go to Arizona to visit my grandparents, we always get sushi. My mom and my dad first introduced me to sushi,” she explained.

Lastly, Lieberman believes that kindness can have a huge impact on people and can make the world a better place. In the future, she wishes to join a college program to go into nursing in order to become a pediatric nurse. “I have a drive for helping people; I love kids, babies,  and being able to help save lives. I feel that nursing would be a very cool way of giving back,” she explained.