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BACKGROUND On November 17, 1998, the City Council approved the Civic Arts Commission's recommendation to create the position of Pleasanton Poet Laureate. The primary role of the Poet Laureate was to provide poetry at civic events and promote the appreciation of the literary arts in the community. Those individuals established a tradition of Poetry readings and created new literary programs for the community. In August 2012, the City began a formal process to recruit and appoint a Teen Poet Laureate to expand poetry and literary arts to youth in Pleasanton. In January 2013, the first two students, one from Amador Valley High School and one from Foothill High School, were appointed to serve as the City's first Teen Poet Laureates for the 2012/2013 school year. Past Pleasanton Teen Poet Laureates include: • Arany Uthayakumar (2012-2013) • Diana Fu (2012-2013) & (2013-2014) • Nive Raghavan (2013-2014) • Nicole Tsuno (2014-2015) • Maya Lyubomirsky (2014-2015) • Frances Tang (2015-2016) • Kyler Juarez (2015-2016 and 2016-2017) • Kyle Mular (2016-2017) • Irene Sha (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) • Nithya Swaminathan (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) • Yasmin Ghaemmaghani (2017-2018) • Varsha Vaidyanath (2017-2018) • Sandra Chen (2018-2019) • Kanchan Naik (2019-2020) The most recent Teen Poet Laureate, Kanchan Naik from Quarry Lane School, conducted several programs during the 2019/2020 school year. Highlights of Kanchan's year as Teen Poet Laureate included hosting a booth at the City's arts and innovation event, Ignite!, encouraging participants of all ages to "connect with their inner poets" through a photo display. In January 2020, Kanchan opened the Pleasanton Community of Character Collaborative (PCCC) 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Fellowship Breakfast with an original poem. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Kanchan converted her Page 2 of 3