Having announced his run for Ohio’s 94th district, GSS President reflects on humble beginnings, dream of creating sustainable future for Appalachia.
To Eddie Smith, the low-income housing projects on the outskirts of Martins Ferry, Ohio, were a place to call home.
The river town, strong in its unions, yet like many Appalachian communities, poor in material, with more than 23 percent of its citizens living in poverty, was home to Smith and his seven siblings, who shared his divorced father’s three-bedroom apartment just outside of town.
Those days, however, are long in the past.
Not only does he currently hold the title of president of the Ohio University Graduate Student Senate, but in December, Smith announced his candidacy for representative of Ohio’s 94th district — the very place that, according to Smith, changed his worldview forever.
“Where I was growing up, we weren’t taught to care about local food, about local businesses … we shopped at Wal-Mart.” Smith said. “And we were poor, so we were taught that the most important thing was low cost. Athens has helped me to see it in a different way.”
Within the halls of OU, Smith has found his place amongst fellow student leaders in GSS, alongside school officials on university committees, and in the classroom, where he is completing his master’s degree in public administration — soon to be paired with his master’s in sociology.
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Smith’s campaign for office has even inspired the involvement of fellow graduate students like Pon Ti Tsou, who feels that the goal of simply “doing good in the community” is motivation enough for supporting Smith’s election.
But with a host of campus and community activities often occupying his schedule, Smith admits that finding a balance between work, school and activism has been a difficult process.
“It’s always been a struggle to balance my coursework with my involvement … but I prioritize being involved above my coursework. And that’s the mentality I bring to the leadership position I’m running for right now,” Smith said. “People have elected you and are counting on you to be there and to be their voice in a room and to stand up for them - and that means you’ve got to put aside the other things.”
Upon the red-bricked streets of Athens, Smith’s involvement takes on an even broader range, from devising innovative transportation solutions as a member of the Athens County Transportation Task Force, to tracking energy usage in county buildings as part of the EPA Energy Star Program and volunteering each weekend at the local farmer’s market.
“While Eddie may seem young at first glance, he has a sharp mind, and intellect beyond his years.” Sarah Kaplan, GSS Vice President of Communications, said. “He really does have our best interests at heart ... and he is so passionate about making progressive change."
As an •asthma-stricken child who spent years of his life beneath the smokestacks of a coal-fired power plant in a small town on the •Ohio-West Virginia border, Smith focuses a great deal of his energy and activism today on addressing environmental issues, whether bringing light to the effects of public health hazards on low-income populations or examining the effects of climate change on the global environment.
“A lot of folks in low-income areas get exposed to a lot of environmental and public health hazards, and I don’t think that’s very fair,” Smith said. “Environmental protection’s a very big deal for me because it’s often a way of protecting disadvantaged groups from environmental health hazards.”
With a keen eye focused in on the Southeast Ohio region in particular, Smith doubts that his political ventures will take him outside the realm of Athens anytime soon.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever leave OU,” Smith joked, probing the possibility of looking into Ph.D programs. “I’ve just fallen in love with Athens, and I don’t know if I ever want to leave."
Smith, however, has in no way forgotten the childhood spent in Martins Ferry. But rather than forget about the past he left behind, he looks to the future he plans to create for the people of Southeast Ohio, and to the legacy that he hopes to leave behind if indeed his days at OU someday come to an end.
“I want to inspire other people to do the things that professors and community members have inspired me to do. To try to leave behind a more sustainable future for future generations,” Smith said. “That means creating a future where there’s equity — where people are treated fairly and have equal access ... all of those things fall under sustainability — creating a sustainable future for Appalachians.”
@lauren__fisher
lf966614@ohio.edu
