Palisades High School alumnus Stephen Silberkraus was sworn into office for his first term at the Nevada State Assembly on Monday, Feb. 2.
The newly elected Assemblymember credits Pali High for introducing him to the world of politics at an early age, affording him the opportunity to be on the policy debate team as well as captain of the mock trial team.
“I guess that should have been an early indicator of where I was going to end up,” Silberkraus said in an interview with the Palisadian-Post.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Silberkraus
Silberkraus said the thought of turning his passion for politics into a career came to him during his sophomore year at Pali High when he was nominated by his math teacher to go to the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.
“I actually got to debate on the floor of the U.S. Congress,” he recalled.
From there, Silberkraus took dual enrollment at Santa Monica College during his senior year of high school and got involved in student government at SMC as the Chief Justice of the school’s judicial board. He also sat on the curriculum committee as a student representative.
While working toward his degree in political science at UC-Santa Barbara, Silberkraus interned in DC for Congressmember Mary Bono.
After college, he moved to Nevada where his father lived.
“I came to the Nevada legislature several years ago as a citizen just to see how the State was run and a couple of years later I walked in as a citizen legislator and you could feel the weight of the institution on your shoulders,” Silberkraus said.
Silberkraus currently serves on the Commerce and Labor, Government Affairs, and Transportation committees.
Regarding advice for aspiring politicians at Pali High, he said, “Always stand by your principles. Be proud of what you believe in and fight for it. If you know what your true beliefs are, you can work with other people, but you never compromise your core values.”
The State Assemblymember added, “Keep it clean. It’s easy to tear other people down, but don’t do that. Show them your ideas and what’s great about you. Show them what you’re going to do to change. Be the example.”
When Silberkraus isn’t in the office, he spends time with his wife and son Sawyer.
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