Have you ever felt like you presented an issue to someone and after some time, that issue never got resolved? Well, Rowan alumni, Chelsea Valcourt felt that same way when she consistently sent emails with extensive research to Monroe’s Board of Education while she was still in middle and high school. Most of her attempts weren’t successful until she wrote an email to the board about teacher contracts, and a week later, teacher contracts were created. Whether or not her messages impacted their decision, Valcourt has always been invested in improving the communities she’s a part of.
That was only the beginning for Valcourt and politics. Towards the beginning of the pandemic, when the young politician was enrolled at Rowan, Valcourt was encouraged to run for council.
“Eh, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. There’s nothing else to do, let’s just do it,” said Valcourt.
Embarking on the race, Valcourt never even thought she had a chance to win, especially since her opponent was a successful business owner as well as council president which was an indication that she would have her hands full. Along with the alluded pressure of running against someone who seemed more qualified to be on the council, Valcourt also had to face adversity with the members attempting to bully her out of the position.
“It was challenging,” Valcourt said. “There was a lot of people betting against me, a lot of people calling me names, and making things really difficult… spreading so many rumors… I’d open up Facebook and would find out new facts about me that I never learned before, like apparently I got my retail job from the rival party, and I was like ‘I don’t think they gave me a job at Big Lots. ‘”
All the attempts to discredit Valcourt fell short since she ended up winning the election and joining the council on a four-year term that started in 2020. Every year since, she has risen in the ranks and today is now the youngest Monroe council president in her town’s history.
Acquiring the presidency of a town council is an accomplishment in itself, but even before the presidency, she had to take on being the youngest council member in the town’s history, as well as a double major college student, and the Arts and Entertainment editor for The Whit.
Valcourt struggled at first with the idea of it all but pushed herself to the point where she knew in her heart she would be able to handle it.
“I had ordinance meetings on Wednesdays as well as the Whit meetings, so I’d have to get all my work done at The Whit early, in addition to all of my schoolwork in order to be able to make my nighttime meetings,” Valcourt said. Time management and organizational skills were her strong suits, which made things a bit easier for her.
“I’ve always been good at time management,” she explained. “I feel like a shark if I stay still.”
Even now, as Valcourt has graduated from Rowan she still has to juggle working her job with Del Val Media which is an hour away from her home as well as still being the council president.
“It’s a lot of preparing all my stuff the night before, and then just work, change, meeting,” Valcourt said.
With not a lot of time for herself, the accomplished politician really struggled with her mental health but also felt that she gained a lot of confidence not just in herself, but also in her beliefs and aspirations for her town and the council.
In addition to her gaining confidence, Valcourt also learned how to overcome adversity in situations when the person she had to fight was herself.
“There’s been plenty of times where I didn’t wanna get up and just didn’t want to go to the meeting, I just wanted to relax, but you can’t really do that when you have a voter base that really depends on you to represent them and to make their decisions,” Valcourt said.
None of this was easy for Valcourt. She was always on the go and doing something to further herself whether it be with the council or with her career in journalism. She was always looking to make her situation better than it was the day before. All those emails from middle and high school opened the door to what her life would be like for her college career and beyond.
With 2024 being the last year of her term, Valcourt does not plan on running for re-election but instead is looking to move out of her parent’s house, spread her wings at her job, and continue working towards personal goals.
“I don’t know where I’ll be in the next eight years, and I don’t wanna just give up my position and leave it vacant, so tying things up and making sure I leave the council in a good space, so they can continue to progress and do great things,” said Valcourt.
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