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A 19-year-old first-year Northeastern College scholar is planning to run for mayor of Woburn. And to Omar Mohuddin, his youth is nothing however a bonus.

With a youth-centered, intimate data of Woburn’s communities, Mohuddin says his marketing campaign is concentrated on three priorities: investing in colleges and educators, supporting first responders, and beautifying streets, sidewalks, and public areas for town’s 40,000 residents.

However don’t mistake his youth — the 19-year-old can be the youngest mayor within the historical past of Massachusetts if he had been to win in November — for inexperience or ignorance, Mohuddin says. Born and raised in Woburn, the 19-year-old says residents spend their lives complacent in regards to the metropolis’s flaws. Now, he hopes to alter that.

“I do know that lots of people have sort of simply accepted issues in Woburn the best way they’re, as a result of that’s what we all know and that’s what we now have,” Mohuddin mentioned. “And I believe it’d be fairly huge, placing my voice on the market, and letting individuals know that we don’t have to just accept issues the best way they’re. We are able to tackle the established order and make it possible for issues are formed … the best way that we wish them to be formed.”

Raised by his mom, who Mohuddin says thinks her son’s candidacy is “just a little loopy,” the Woburn native grew up within the metropolis along with his three brothers. On his marketing campaign web site, he notes he was class president at Woburn Memorial Excessive College, the place he graduated in 2022 earlier than receiving a full-ride scholarship to Northeastern; there, the 19-year-old presently research enterprise administration, with a focus in finance. Mohuddin says his expertise working with funds has ready him to deal with the intricate budgets and bills of Woburn.

“An enormous function of being mayor in Woburn is dealing with the finances, and my coursework has thrown perhaps one million budgets my approach in a yr,” Mohuddin mentioned. “And in order that I believe goes to return into play throughout the enterprise side.”

In his first yr, Mohuddin made the Dean’s Checklist, and labored with different first era faculty college students. Throughout highschool, Mohuddin says he was a part of the embRACE program at WMHS in addition to Woburn Welcomes and Social Capital Inc.

Along with his three key priorities — investing in schooling, respecting and advocating for first responders, and bettering the aesthetics of town — in place, Mohuddin says he’ll begin forming extra particular insurance policies as he goes door to door asking what points individuals care about.

Schooling sits atop Mohuddin’s guidelines, and he says that the current Woburn lecturers strike, which closed school rooms for a number of days, is a major instance of the neglect some public staff face in Woburn. And whereas wages for Woburn’s lecturers are decided by the college committee — the group that ultimately granted town’s educators a 13.75% wage enhance — Mohuddin says that when he’s mayor, educators within the metropolis will now not be ignored.

Working with a 15-person workforce of younger, although skilled, volunteers, Mohuddin says that his marketing campaign has the youthful vitality and perception wanted to assist Woburn exceed expectations. And he says that this may come by bringing town’s youth to the desk.

“I’m not slowed down by day-to-day actions of somebody halfway by their profession,” Mohuddin mentioned. “I’m not in the midst of elevating a household, or a 9-to-5 job, so I’ve sufficient time to grasp the issues that have an effect on the neighborhood. And I additionally am capable of have interaction the youth in a approach that they’ve by no means been engaged with earlier than. And [I can] make it possible for they’re concerned with the neighborhood and the issues occurring locally, as a result of additionally they are a part of the neighborhood.”

Whereas the November election day is over 200 days away (222 as of Thursday, in accordance the ticker on Mohuddin’s web site), the 19-year-old says that he’s laying the groundwork now to organize for marketing campaign season. And regardless of nonetheless being in courses, if elected he says the college will rely his new place towards Northeastern’s co-op program, earlier than he begins taking courses half time.

With nominating papers not due till Might, no different candidates have formally introduced their campaigns. However the Each day Instances Chronicle of Woburn and Patch.com have each reported that seven-term mayor Scott Galvin intends to run once more, that means Mohuddin might face some stiff competitors.

Within the meantime, Mohuddin says he’ll proceed to knock on doorways earlier than throwing a big kick-off fundraiser.

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