We had the good fortune of connecting with Amir Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amir, what do you want your legacy to be?
“For now, I’m not sure what I want the world to know about me, maybe that I want to be remembered as that one person that always tried to help out, or the one was never scared to speak his mind, but the thing I know for sure is I want to be remebered as someone that had an open mind, the one that tried (failed or not) or that hopefully what I do in my future is remebered. That I did the best I possibly could for the people that I want to serve, and for sure to become the best role model I could be to represent and advocate for platforms that many people won’t speak on, getting the hard topics out, and building others ideas of themself, when I have a bigger platform for, as well as being a bi-partisan contributer.”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
“Starting off, it was absolutley not easy, of course almost everyone says that but especially trying to break into a field like politics, without a first foot in the door made it difficult, because it’s a field based on connection. But doable, although I would go as far as to say that I was very lucky.” He says following two rebrands of his campaign “The Political Environment”, they were finally able to get some traction on social media, leading to his place speaking at the 2023 EarthX Expo, which is the worlds largest environmental conference, leading to a sponsorship by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration because they had begun to focus on environmental education and awareness, which the campaign had already created a program for, creating bi-monthly groups of around 25-75 students since January 2022. He says “It was really just about work, half-luck and half-late nights”

“Speaking of late nights, in my opinion where I am today was based on them, late nights- to get work, reports, briefs, and policy proposals completed, as well as just asking. One piece of advice I have for any and everyone is just ask, ask that person for an internship, ask if they need help, ask for that help.” Recently, along with a local attorney Ted Tatarevich, Amir now also works on criminal cases for both teens and adults, as well as a new justice and incarceration program I initated to help and rehabilitate previously incarcerated people locally, to supply clean energy from fundraisers to homes with incarcerated, previosly incarcerated and single-parents.”

“Setting myself apart I would say is my age, I’m almost 16, so I have a whole life ahead of my and I am so glad I started younger, I get chances everyday now to meet with UN secretariats, and I’m the youngest delegate to the UN. I’ve worked on international projects, and I feel as if you just start early theres so much more you can do. And, the lessons I feel like I’ve learned are as I said before to ask, as well as just do it, and that is one of the things I am most proud of that I got over my fear of spontaneity. “You can’t wait for everything to be perfect” before you do it, because nothing ever will be, and now that is one of the harshest things I’ve ever learned, if you keep waiting around, things will not come to you, you have to go to them. Seize it”.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
“My best friends do live near me for now, but if they didn’t and were visiting the area. First thing in the morning, moving my body, driving to donwtown Fort Worth to Pax & Beneficia to get an iced matcha, and in no particular order we would definitely have to go to the Rooftop Cinema Club, to watch a 2000s movie, action or musical. Visiting museums like the Kimbell, Perot, or Amon Carter, and a hangout just my friend and I, that I feel is one of the best things, especially when friends are visiting from out of town, catching up, reading, and talking.”

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
“Being completely honest, obvisously I owe so much to my mom, and friends that really pushed me to be better, but the people I have to say contributed most to my success and my hopeful future success are my “haters”. The people that had the guts to tell me that “I couldn’t” and the people that forced me be myself, and stand up for myself, anytime I would get pushed down. Because it began to teach me resilience, it began teaching me that obviously as cliché as it sound but, it began teaching me that if someone pushed me down, I get back up, and go even harder. It taught me to use peoples laughs, or hate and channel it into something better, and although it sounds conterintuative, it also gave me more self confidence. Although I’ve learned so much about myself from friends, family, Instagram and TikTok but I’ve learned more about myself from those people that have had the guts to dislike me.”

Website: https://thepoliticalenvironment.com

Instagram: amirwsmith

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-w-smith-52a035268?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits
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