Eight Bay Area high school students were chosen by the region's WB affiliate--Warner Brothers broadcast network--WB20 (KBWB-TV,) to serve on the council that is a peer-to-peer community outreach program.

The Sunnyvale students are Kyrra Engle, a senior at Homestead High School, and Nathan Yi, a senior at King's Academy in Sunnyvale.

This is the third year for the community relations program developed by station president and general manager, Bob Anderson. Anderson said he had been working on an idea for an annual community relations campaign focused on developing "character."

He got the idea from a Detroit sister station WB20 "Stars" program that primarily used the teenagers for station promotion, and tweaked it a little.

Anderson's modifications made it possible for teens to reach out to other teens through public service announcements about concerns such as drinking and drugs or sexually transmitted disease.

Kyrra found the notion of delivering messages appealing.

"You get the opportunity to reach a lot of people," she says.

To make it to the audition and screen test, the teens had to write an essay about important issues facing today's youth.

Kyrra focused her essay on conformity. She said teens feel pressure to conform not only in the clothes they wear and their hairstyles, but also in drinking, drugs and having sex. Then there are the expectations of parents and other family members.

"You just have to learn to think for yourself," she says.

Doing just that, she says she made the decision to not discuss her college options with any of her peers.

"I didn't want anything to contaminate my decision," she says.

Kyrra, who is interested in acting, politics and medicine, says she is really excited to get started on the panel's first public service announcement.

The student council will collectively settle on an issue, which they will research and collaborate on with the WB20 staff to produce a public service announcement. The teens will act as on-air spokespeople.

Nathan says a few people at school have noticed him on the station's public service announcement that is promoting the student council.

While Nathan's essay focused on comfort level differences in technology between teens and their parents, he hopes that one of the issues the student council tackles during its one-year term is relationships.

"People take it so lightly," he says.

In a throwaway society, Nathan believes that emotional leftovers from relationships in middle school can stick with you for a lifetime.

"You always remember the special ones," he says.

Both Nathan and Kyrra agree that sometimes getting advice from peers is easier than if the same message is delivered by an adult.

The wide-ranging issues addressed by the inaugural WB20 Student Council exceeded Anderson's expectations. He says he sees nothing less coming from the current group of teens charged with raising issues that will cause their peers to "Think About It."