BRUNSWICK

Izzy Jorgensen is a busy young woman.

When she’s not studying for calculus or advanced-placement language and literature classes, 17-year-old high school junior Isabella “Izzy” Jorgensen can be found running her lines with the school’s drama troupe, working at a local bagel shop or, on alternate Wednesday nights, sitting in on discussions as the School Board’s student liasion.

Nobody conscripted her to the seat. She volunteered.

“I’m interested in policy,” Jorgensen said with a  deferential shrug. “When I’m sitting in class, it’s amazing to me that so much thought and planning has already gone into what (we’re) learning, and how we’re supposed to be learning it.”

Could this be what a policy-wonk-in-the-making looks like? 

“Well,” she admits, “I want to get into University of Chicago, because they’ve got a really good public policy program. Or Georgetown. I love Washington, D.C.”

Pause. 

“And maybe Harvard,” she adds, as if by afterthought. “Pretty good school there, too.”

Currently vice president of the student council, she said she’s working with colleagues to revise the Student Government Constitution to better reflect its application to the student body.

“I like to be in charge,” she said. Then, as if realizing how that sounds, she smiles a little sheepishly and clarifies her statement:

“I like problem solving and troubleshooting. I like to be a leader.”

After classes let out, she’ll go to rehearsal with the Brunswick School Players; she’s cast as “Jan,” one of the Pink Ladies in the school’s adaptation of “Grease,” scheduled to open in March.

Jorgensen spends about 90 minutes a week preparing for board meetings, although she expects that to increase as they get deeper into 2013-14 budget talks. 

She said she’s gaining an appreciation for the difficulties of reconciling educational aspirations of the students and teachers with funding realities of the town and state.

Board member Corinne Perreault knows Jorgensen as a friend of her daughter.

“She’s always been very interested in behind-the-scenes and taking the leadership on things,” Perreault said. “But, as a board, we’re still really just getting to know Izzy.”

Despite outward appearance, there exists a mischievous schoolgirl lurking inside the adultish teenager. 

Just ask her 15-year-old brother, Dash, who is a freshman.

“He hates it when I call him out in the hallways,” Jorgensen says, smiling again. 

So, how much does she torture Dash during the day?

“Not too much,” she admits. “Maybe just enough.”