Who Is the 'Mayor' of Your School or Neighborhood? New York has always been a city of mayors. Every block has one. So do industries, underworlds and dog parks," begins a new interactive that features nine New Yorkers nominated by readers for their role in different city communities - including Cheyanne Smith, whom the feature calls the "mayor of teenagers." If you were to nominate someone as the "mayor" of your school, neighborhood or community, whom would you choose? In "Cheyanne Smith, Mayor of Teenagers," Emily S. Rueb and Kirk Semple write: Cheyanne Smith stood in front of the City Council in August to say that New York City schools treated students like prisoners. When she was done, Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, took the microphone and said that maybe Ms. Smith, who was 16 at the time, should be the one running for office. Ms. Quinn later pulled her aside to ask if she wanted a recommendation for college. This kind of recognition is not surprising for those who know Ms. Smith, a senior at the Bushwick School for Social Justice in Brooklyn who zigzags around the country to rallies and conferences advocating laws that prohibit racial profiling and that protect young people from being pushed into low-wage work or the criminal justice system. The giggly teenager is a youth leader at Make the Road New York, a nonprofit organization that works with low-income and immigrant populations. She makes pinkie vows with friends who promise to come out for a protest or to attend one of the spoken word events she organizes. If they come, she will walk them to the subway afterward. In September, Ms. Smith was quoted at length in a Rolling Stone article about restorative justice in schools. Her principal, Lucas Cooke, emailed it to the staff, half-joking they should watch out: Here comes our next mayor. One teacher responded: Or our next president. "But she's not just a voice," Mr. Cooke said. She does the invigorating work of organizing, but also the administrative tasks and groundwork to turn an idea into action. Last year, in between extracurricular activities like knitting and urban gardening, Ms. Smith took it upon herself to expand student government to the underclassmen. There were many nights she stayed on campus long after Mr. Cooke had left for the day, writing up mission statements, forms and charters, sending out emails. Friends admire Ms. Smith's Afro (when she has one) and the colorful African dresses with head scarves she sometimes wears. In the hallways, even her ex-boyfriends stop to chat. It's her impulse to make even strangers feel welcome, she said, because of the way she was accepted when she moved to the United States six years ago from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. "I learned a phrase: It takes a village to raise a child," she said. So, my community or my village is everyone that I interact with, or everyone that I have an interaction with. My village is huge. What do you think of Ms. Smith? Do you know other teenagers like her? Why do you think Times readers nominated her? The Times received more than 200 nominees for this feature, including "veterans, financiers, pastors, philanthropists, bloggers and a drag queen parade impresario." Scroll through the other people featured so far. What qualities do they seem to have in common? Who is the unofficial mayor of your school? Your neighborhood? Another community to which you belong? Which of those people would you nominate for a feature like this if you could? How would you describe that person's impact on the community? How does your school recognize students, teachers and staff members who do notable, excellent or interesting things? Whom do you think gets overlooked? How could you remedy that?