Lauren Knopp has been student rep to the New Jersey Board of Education
OCEAN CITY — Ocean City High School senior Lauren Knopp has a few ideas for the state Board of Education. One is a more stable and universal system of obtaining college credits. Another getting more hands-on learning — daily disruptors, if you will — brought into the classroom to stimulate student learning.
Knopp is just the person to provide that input.
‘Lauren represents Ocean City High School extremely well. She is outstanding. She is extremely articulate and extremely intelligent. More so articulate in the way she can absorb information and present it back to us. I think she is exceptional at that.’
–OCHS Principal Dr. Wendy O’Neal
Like her OCHS counterparts Isabella Pero and Chris Ganter, with whom she will graduate in a few weeks, Knopp has been a student representative to the Ocean City Board of Education this past year. All three get to advise the board on issues affecting students.
Unlike just about every other high school student in the state, the 18-year-old from Ocean View has had the opportunity of being heard at the highest levels. A member of the 2022 executive board of the New Jersey Association of Student Councils, she was named the student representative to the state Board of Education, a term that began last July 2022 and finishes this June.
Knopp brought her South Jersey viewpoints to the state board.
“We are a pretty isolated portion of the state and surrounded by a lot of rural areas. I talked a lot about the struggles of being a computer science student (here),” Knopp said, citing the limited professional opportunities here in what she hopes will be her future career compared to the more urban parts of the state.
“I think I bring a new perspective that they don’t get to see very often,” she said, and that is part of the point of having a different state student representative each year.
“Lauren represents Ocean City High School extremely well. She is outstanding,” according to Principal Dr. Wendy O’Neal. “She is extremely articulate and extremely intelligent. More so articulate in the way she can absorb information and present it back to us. I think she is exceptional at that.
“For a 17-, 18-year-old woman, she can look at the larger picture and think two to three steps ahead and present it back in that manner,” she added.
Knopp, O’Neal said, “also helps us significantly because she takes the broader picture at the state level and really looks through the Ocean City lens. She starts off her statements like that, that this is something they’re talking about at the state level but this is how it can help us in Ocean City. She is well beyond her years that way. She is exceptional.”
Knopp believes it is important for the state Board of Education to get different student representatives.
“I think it for the best this position changes every year because you don’t want to just get my perspective over and over and over again. … There is a new person who is going to come in in July and she will bring something new to the table that I would not be able to bring.”
One lighter aspect she enjoyed bringing up is the location of her high school. When the Student Council Executive Board came here for a meeting in September, she used the opportunity to take her fellow board members outside to show them her school is literally by the beach. Her peers were impressed.
Asked what she would change about education in New Jersey, Knopp cited a better system of getting colleges credits and a more direct outline in curriculum-based standards.
On a broader scale, she would love more hands-on learning in the classroom.
“Stability is sometimes a curse and a burden, and getting disruptors on a daily basis, to do a different type of learning, that’s what keeps you alive,” she said. “No one wants to sit down for seven hours a day and keep doing work. I think it is very valuable to have times you can go to the library or to a computer lab to get different types of work done. I’d just like to see a learning atmosphere more receptive of that.”
Knopp became an officer on the state Student Council in February 2022 and although that office ended earlier this year, her duties continue through June on the state board because that appointment coincides with the school year.
A freshman when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Knopp felt a lack of connection to people in leadership roles during her virtual education and decided to step up herself.
That’s what got her started on Student Council in Ocean City. She was appointed press secretary, a role she held through her sophomore and junior years, and has been the treasurer this year. She was glad she took on the first role.
“I vividly member being slated for that position and it was probably the best thing that happened to me in high school because it eventually led to this,” Knopp said.
When she interviewed for the state Student Council Executive Board, the past board members doing the interview decided she would be right for the representative position.
Knopp would recommend serving to younger students.
“I have been a huge champion of this. I always like to say, if you even think you would have an aptitude for something, if you would find this slightly interesting, do it, because you might not have a chance to do this again as a student,” she said. “It’s such a valuable experience. I’ve definitely learned a lot from the start of my junior year when I started to get incorporated into all this.”
The most interesting aspect to being on the state board has been “being able to meet the people who make things happen, the change-makers,” she said. “During my keynote speech back in October I was able to introduce my family, my friends and my teacher to the commissioner of education in the state and the state Board of Education president. And that felt really nice, saying I know these people, I work with these people. It felt nice to know the people that make things happen.”
She also enjoys listening to what others have to say at the Ocean City Board of Education meetings. When she’s in the classroom, she doesn’t get the larger perspective.
“I sit in classrooms but I don’t see what goes behind all that learning,” she said. “I don’t know what teachers feel, I don’t know what parents feel. I don’t know how administrators feel. I like to listen to the challenges other people face because that is how you troubleshoot and how you decide how to best fix a problem that would benefit everybody that holds a stake in education.
“I enjoy the exposure to everyone and getting to listen to what they have to say.”
“She is extremely well-rounded,” O’Neal said. “She is a high-achieving student. She is well-rounded in a sense that she participates in student council, she participates in student council at the state level, she also participates in our plays and our music. She does everyday typical normal teenager stuff as well. It is difficult to find a well-rounded person like that.
“We have quite a few at Ocean City, we’re very fortunate, but elsewhere around the state of New Jersey you’re going to find a lot of Lauren Knopps. I’m in awe of the way she can articulate things.
“Most of us during our professional careers learn that over our trajectories, but it’s almost innate for her,” the principal added. “The way she can look at something, listen, and present it back in a different lens is so impressive. We’ll miss her sorely and hope we can get another state Board of Education representative like we had in her and Nora (Faverzani).
Cindi Knopp said all of what her daughter Lauren has done has been self-initiated.
“I’ve seen a lot of growth. I’ve seen her confidence build from getting up in front of everybody at the state board meeting in October in Atlantic City. To see her get up in front of people and give a speech like that … I was blown away by what she wrote,” her mother said. “She wouldn’t let me see what her ideas were. It was a surprise to me. I’ve seen a lot of growth in her and I’m proud of her and I know she’s ready for whatever she wants to do. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Knopp is headed to the Honors College at the University of Vermont to continue her education.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff