Having been interested in politics since the fifth grade, I became politically active at age thirteen, joining the Howard County Young Democrats and later volunteering for Governor Joe Kernan's reelection campaign--logging tens of hours canvassing and phone banking on the ground in inner-city Kokomo.

More recently, I've worked with local leaders to create the Howard County Democratic Party's first grassroots-driven website, encompassing a blog that is now read by hundreds of local and statewide officials on a daily basis and a new method of collecting and utilizing data generated by its thousands of visitors. It has produced new local activists and strengthened our local party in an unprecedented way, not only financially and communicatively, but also by providing a forum for leaders and citizens to share ideas about our government.

The model we've established in Howard County has been replicated statewide as well; the Indiana Young Democrats contracted me to build a new online presence for their organization and I am currently working with the Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus to market their efforts in a new election-driven website. The project will allow candidates and Senators alike to use the caucus's new tools like blogging and email solicitation to improve their own online operations in the run up to the 2006 elections. My efforts were recognized at the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association's annual convention in French Lick by Senator Vi Simpson and Indiana Young Democrats' President John Zody.

In 2005, I produced a documentary critical of the Matt McKillip administration's efforts to squelch dissent among city employees. The film, Words of Sedition, was lauded throughout the state and nation-wide, the AP calling it a "biting" incrimination of the mayor's censorship.

My free speech and public access credentials were furthered when I filed and won a public access lawsuit against the City of Kokomo, which a court ruled in January was illegally withholding government records that I'd requested. Winning what Indianapolis's WTHR has called a "major legal victory against a powerful man [Mayor McKillip]," my story ran nationwide in the USA Today and online, notably garnering attention from Slashdot.org.

Editorial boards across the state heralded my lawsuit as a "resounding legal victory" (The Indianapolis Star), "a heroic effort for public access" (The Tribune-Star), a "'feel-good' story about a student successfully crusading in the name of the public" (The Star Press), and in contrasting me to Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette noted that, "The Kokomo student is wise beyond his years to recognize...and challenge those in authority...If Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma is behaving like an adolescent when it comes to his stubborn defense of Statehouse prayers, it's at least encouraging to see an Indiana teenager behaving like a mature, responsible and informed citizen."

In an editorial entitled "A Teen Shall Lead," the Indianapolis Star wrote that, "Nees deserves special thanks from public officials, who stand warned that their pronouncements about democracy may be taken seriously by the innocent."

I have since spoken at Ball State University's observance of Sunshine Week, lecturing and participating in a panel discussion on government secrecy before several hundred college journalism students. I will speak before the National Freedom of Information Summit this April.

Though these accomplishments have given me the privilege of meeting hundreds of Hoosier Democrats around the state, I've remained firm in my commitment to academia. Maintaining an A+ average through high school, I am ranked in the top 2% of my class at Western High School in Russiaville, Indiana. During my Freshman year, I was named "An Outstanding Spokesperson for Freedom" by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for an essay celebrating veterans' service; from thousands of entrants, I won Weekly Reader's "My Inaugural Address" contest, and the National Coalition Against Censorship named me a finalist in their "Free Speech and Democracy" film competition. During this time, I also served my class as their President and have been a member of the Drama Club, Student Council (in that capacity I served as State Convention delegate as well), robotics team, the tennis team, forensics and debate team (placing 6th in the state my first year of competition), an Indiana House of Representatives and Senate Page, and was named in both the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 editions of Who's Who Among High School Students. My political column is published each month in Kokomo's largest-distribution newspaper, The Kokomo Perspective.