Running! is a Teen Vogue series on getting involved in the government.

Activist and student Elijah Manley has lived in Broward County, Florida, his entire life, and he graduated from Fort Lauderdale High School in June 2017. He’s seen fellow students suffer from homelessness, food insecurity, gun violence, and sexual abuse — and he says he’s experienced all of that himself, too. The hardships, however, never deterred Elijah from fighting to survive or from fighting for others in his community. That’s exactly why he decided to run for a position on the school board in Broward County, the sixth-largest public school district in the country.

According to the South Florida Business Journal, Broward County is also one of the wealthiest counties in Florida. But Elijah says he has directly experienced the way that wealthy, majority-white communities have more resources and how a lack of resources can impact less-privileged students.

“I graduated high school not knowing how to file taxes, not knowing anything about interest rates, not knowing how to buy things — I didn’t know about financial literacy,” he tells Teen Vogue. “We know all those math formulas for nothing. They’re not preparing me for anything. There are people who are graduating not knowing how to read and write.” (Teen Vogue has reached out to the Broward School District for comment on literacy among its graduates.)

Elijah says he feels that not enough members of the school board have actively focused on the lack of resources that many young people from less-privileged communities suffer from — and for that reason, Elijah says the board needs a young person like him to help guide them, because young people experience first-hand the issues that affect them.

“Because I’m young and just graduated high school, no one is more qualified than me. I’m the most recent example of what public education can produce, and I definitely think we should have someone on the school board who reflects the issues,” he says. “We don’t need someone who hasn’t stepped on a school campus in decades. We’ve never had a person my age hold public office in this county.”

At just 14, Elijah joined the local Black Lives Matter Alliance and began devoting his time to activism and advocacy. Since then, he has interned for multiple political campaigns, organized with Black Lives Matter, and acted as a board member for the National Youth Rights Association — all before even starting college.