As levels of anger rise, political conflicts become more and more hostile, respect for government wanes, and support for publicly elected officials declines, who could blame young people for feeling disaffected? One local student, however, is dedicated to making his voice, and the voices of millions of other young people, heard in Washington.

James Wellemeyer, 16-year-old Rosedale Road resident and rising junior at The Lawrenceville School, is the New Jersey state director of the Campaign for a Presidential Youth Council, a national effort to urge the president to sign an executive order creating an official Federal Advisory Council of 16- to 24-year-olds.

Mr. Wellemeyer, who is responsible for the campaign’s activities in New Jersey, including managing the state’s 12 district directors, explained, “I am deeply interested in politics and a huge advocate for youth involvement and empowerment in the American political system. That is the reason I became N.J. state director for the campaign — to put my efforts toward increasing youth participation in our political system.”

The Council’s goal is to give young people a say in policies that affect them, to give them a voice and a seat at the table.

“All too often our federal government makes critical decisions affecting the lives of young Americans without any direct input from them,” according to the Campaign for a Presidential Youth Council website. “This failure to engage young Americans in the decision-making process unintentionally leads to the under-representation of roughly 104 million people under the age of 24.”

The presidential council would bring together 24 young people four times a year to make recommendations concerning federal youth programs. In between meetings, council members would crowd-source ideas from listening sessions with peers and bring the best ideas back to Washington. The Council would be bipartisan, with members appointed by the leadership of both parties; privately funded, with no impact on the federal budget; and diverse, reflecting “the geographic, racial, socioeconomic, and philosophical diversity of America.”

The campaign lobbies members of Congress to co-sponsor a bill promoting the establishment of the Council, and promotes similar legislation on the state and local levels. They also seek endorsements from youth organizations. They currently have the support of more than 50 members of Congress.

“New Jersey is a critical state for us, and we have made a lot of progress here,” Mr. Wellemeyer said. ”Recently we passed a resolution in the New Jersey General Assembly that supported the establishment of the Youth Council, the fifth state-wide resolution to support the Council.” They are now working on the state senate, with the idea being to get as much pressure as possible from Congress and state governments to encourage the president to sign an executive order establishing the youth council.

In his role as state director of the campaign, Mr. Wellemeyer serves as spokesman for the organization and meets with local and national legislators.

“The idea for the council comes from the fact that one must be 25 to run for a position in Congress, yet U.S. laws have an effect on young people every day,” Mr. Wellemeyer explained. “Essentially, youth deserve a voice in democracy, but they don’t currently have one. That is a problem, and I want to be part of the solution.”

At Lawrenceville, Mr. Wellemeyer is president of Speech and Debate and the Young Democrats; senior vice president of redefy, a social justice organization striving to defeat hate and embrace acceptance; a team member of the school’s Model United Nations; and a writer for the school newspaper, the Lawrence.

He originally found out about the Campaign for a Presidential Youth Council through Facebook, then decided to look further into it because of his interest in politics and ended up applying for and getting the job of New Jersey state director.

“I believe that youth can have a large impact in politics,” Mr. Widdemeyer concluded, “though many young people themselves do not agree, which creates a problem as fewer and fewer vote under the false assumption their voice won’t be heard in our political system.” A presidential youth council, he maintained, could be an important step in attacking this problem.

Mr. Widdemeyer looks forward to majoring in political science in college, but is not sure what he will do after that — “though I’m certainly open to a career in politics,” he said. Looks like he already has one.