Last week was a big one for Ileana Gonzalez. The 21-year-old went back to school for her senior year at the University of Texas at San Antonio and was appointed to the city’s Ethics Review Board, effective immediately.

Gonzalez, the youngest-ever member of the ethics board, joins a group of working professionals who have decades of experience on her, said City Councilman Ron Nirenberg, whose district includes the main UTSA campus.

That’s part of why he appointed her.

“The Ethics Review Board and this whole idea of municipal integrity — most students I know are extremely idealistic,” he said. “They have a real sense of right and wrong that’s unabated by real-life experience. Frankly, government needs to hold itself to that standard.”

Members of the ethics board are appointed by City Council representatives and the mayor to two-year terms to look into complaints involving violations of San Antonio’s ethics code. In the past, that has included allegations of conflicts of interest, improperly awarded city contracts and misuse of San Antonio property.

Gonzalez first appeared on Nirenberg’s radar through the student government at UTSA — she’s its president. She also chairs the San Antonio Higher Education Representative Assembly, a group that brings together members of student governments from local colleges and universities.

“I’ve seen her work and her leadership and it’s outstanding — the kind of leadership that we should cultivate because it will be taking over our city and our state and our country very soon,” Nirenberg said. “I’ve seen her command attention and respect from people three times her age on subjects that are extremely important to San Antonio.”

Nirenberg saw young people excel in leadership roles in 2013 as an underdog candidate running for San Antonio’s District 8 City Council seat. Fresh-faced and energetic Chris Stewart and Noah Howe, then 19 and 18, respectively, took on his campaign’s grass-roots effort. In between the occasional game of air hockey, they organized door-knocks and thousands of phone calls in the run-up to the election, helping him win.

“We’re all clamoring for young leadership to step up and take charge in our community. We simply haven’t given them the opportunity to do so,” Nirenberg said.

Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Gonzalez’s family moved to Houston when she was 14. But when it came time to choose a college, her sights were set on San Antonio, a city that made an impression on her when she was younger.

It was the first U.S. city her family members visited when they were thinking about moving to the United States, she said.

“I was so shocked at how different it was from Mexico,” Gonzalez said.

Since she moved to San Antonio to study entrepreneurship at UTSA, she grown to love the depth of the city’s Mexican culture, its small businesses, diversity and Texas pride.

She also sees room for improvement — a need to increase access, transparency and trust in local government.

“I’m excited. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be the most energetic one. I’m hopefully not the most outspoken one — I really do want to listen and learn,” she said of her new appointment.

When the board convenes to investigate its next complaint, Gonzalez will be welcomed by its current chairman, former District Attorney Sam Millsap.

He said Gonzalez’s appointment resonates with him. Students were pushing for a greater voice when he attended the University of Texas at Austin in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and Millsap traveled across Texas to address community groups about the importance of including the young in decision-making on important issues.

“I still feel that what I said then had merit,” he said. “I think it’s a great idea.”

gkaul@express-news.net

Twitter: @gretakaul