We the People Interview Series: Interview with Michelle Corkins

Interviewed by Stephanie South, Program Associate, AASCU

As part of the Civic Agency initiative, we are conducting a special “We the People” interview series. In this series, we interview intriguing people with different perspectives on the “We the People” phase of our work in ADP.

Michelle Corkins was born and raised on a farm in central Kansas; she was very active in her church, a member of the local 4-H club, and a record-holding athlete at the high school.  After high school she attended college at Emporia State University (ESU), in Emporia, Kansas.  Her college experience was “pretty vanilla” as she describes it—

I changed my major a few times and finally graduated in 2011 with a BS in Business Marketing.  Throughout college I worked part-time at a retail store and volunteered in my spare time with various non-profit organizations.  Knowing I wanted to start my career in a bigger city, I packed up all my belongings and moved to Denver, Colorado, just two weeks after graduation.

Corkins first became involved with the American Democracy Project through Dr. Rob Catlett’s macroeconomics class.  Dr. Catlett – ESU’s ADP Campus Coordinator – encouraged his students to take part in an online Twitter debate during President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2010.  This was Corkins’ first experience with Twitter and her first time watching the State of the Union.  She thought Twitter was the perfect format for students to debate because of the limited characters allowed in a tweet—it forced them to carefully craft their responses.  Corkins has continued to join ESU students in Twitter debates during SOTU addresses and the 2012 Presidential debates because she believes these Twitter debates are a great way to get young people involved and aware of what’s going on in politics. 

 

 SS: Michelle, I understand you just finished working for President Obama’s re-election campaign. What lead you there, and what did you do for the campaign?

MC:  Oddly enough, a bad day at work!  Having moved to Denver a year prior, I was still establishing a friend base—read as: I didn’t have many friends to call on after a bad day at the office.  I was following the campaign on Facebook and saw a post about canvassing in your neighborhood.  I have always found joy in volunteer work and saw this as a great opportunity to get involved in my community and meet people with likeminded values.  The next morning, I attended my first campaign event, and within the month, I had taken on a leadership role as the Neighborhood Team Leader (NTL).  As an NTL I was responsible for recruiting volunteers for my neighborhood; planning and producing events; and training and managing volunteers, phone banks, and neighborhood canvassing.  I spent my weekends from May-November canvassing (going door-to-door) in my neighborhood to update voter registers, talk to undecided voters, and remind voters who received mail-in ballots to send them in.  Week nights were spent in the field office running phone banks and helping out the field organizers in whatever ways needed.  Little did I know when I signed up for that first Saturday canvass that volunteering on the campaign would become almost like a second job!

SS: As an undergraduate, what were you involved with on campus? How did those things influence the path you took after graduation?

MC:  I wish I could say I was more involved on campus during college.  I would attend campus events but was not active with any campus organizations outside of class.  I did, however, volunteer my time off campus.  Primarily I volunteered with a nonprofit organization (NPO) that lead violence prevention education in local schools.  Seeing the difference this program was making in the lives of young people sparked a passion within me for NPO work.  My career goal became to work for a NPO and make a difference in my community.  Since graduation I have been working to pursue that goal!

SS: Coolest memory from the campaign trail?

MC: Well, I did get to meet the President (more on that later).  But when I look back at my time on the campaign, it’s not the first thing that comes to mind.  I would have to say the coolest part of being involved in the campaign was all the people I met along the way.  I met tons of great people in my neighborhood and on the campaign; we made phone-banking, canvassing, and campaign work fun!  I registered some first-time voters and had great conversations with undecided voters.  Election night was spent at a watch party with my fellow volunteers—seeing Colorado’s results come in was pretty exciting!  All of our hard work had paid off, and that was the most rewarding part!  Lots of tears were shed, lots of hugs were shared, and all sorts of cheering and celebrating.  All these people I met along the way became my “Obama family.”

Meeting the President was pretty amazing, I can’t deny that.  I was honored to find out I was selected to meet him.  Again, I got to meet more great volunteers because of this experience.  While we waited on the President to arrive we chatted about what we would say to him, passed around a mirror to make sure we all looked perfect, and fed off each other’s excitement!  I was surprised that I was not star-struck when I met him—he was just a regular guy.  I like to say the experience was like meeting up with your uncle; it felt comfortable and easy going.  When I introduced myself he replied with, “Michelle, I’m quite fond of that name.”  Given how much I admire Michelle Obama, this was pretty epic!  Knowing where his grandmother was from I shared with him that I grew up in the next town over.  He smiled and said that we could be cousins!  Our picture was taken, and we were ushered on.  The whole encounter lasted less than a minute.  From there we were taken into the auditorium to hear the President speak about women’s issues.  After meeting the President and hearing him speak live I was even more proud to be volunteering on his campaign.

SS: Biggest lesson learned?

MC:  As I prepared to graduate college and looked to start my career, I always said I wanted to work with a nonprofit organization, and that has remained my primary focus post-graduation as I job hunt.  Volunteering on the campaign proved to me that community organizing and NPO work is truly my calling.  While I may have to work in other areas in the meantime, I know in my heart that I am meant for the nonprofit world.

SS: What’s next for you?

MC:  Currently? Planning a trip to Washington DC for the Inauguration!

SS: What advice do you have for young people regarding civic engagement and political involvement? Why do you think it is so important?

MC:  Look at what is important to you; figure out what makes you think, “This cause is too important for me NOT to get involved!”  Tap into that passion and find a cause that supports it.  We’ve all heard the Gandhi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  Change starts with people like you and me; we have to get involved if we want to see change.  No matter the scope of that change, what is important is that you get involved.

 

Following this interview, Michelle informed us of some more exciting news. Michelle and her parents had planned a trip to DC for the Inauguration.  In preparation, her mother, who recently retired, had been researching what kind of events the trio could get access to. Each of them signed up to volunteer for Inauguration events, anticipating that their chances of getting selected were minimal. However, Michelle has been selected to serve the President at the Staff Ball on tonight, January 22, 20123, in Washington, D.C. She had to extend her travel dates but is thrilled at the opportunity, especially because she realized she may have the chance to meet Michelle Obama.

 

 

We the People Interview Series: NAU’s Frankie Beesley

Interviewed by Stephanie South, Program Associate, AASCU

As part of the Civic Agency initiative, we are conducting a special “We the People” interview series. In this series, we interview intriguing people with different perspectives on the “We the People” phase of our work in ADP.

Frankie Beesley was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV. She is currently a junior at Northern Arizona University majoring in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in sustainability, community, and biocultural diversity, and a minor in journalism. She has been involved with the Action Research Teams (ARTs) since her freshman year. The ARTs focus on issues, challenges, and visions for a sustainable campus and community environment, as well as fostering student engagement in a democratic and just way. Frankie became involved with the Weatherization and Community Building Action Team (WACBAT) her freshman year, particularly because WACBAT focused around community building, sustainable initiatives, and student facilitation. During her sophomore year, she was given the opportunity to co-facilitate WACBAT and has held that position ever since. Working with WACBAT, Frankie hopes to continue efforts around community building and engagement as well as aiding and support the efforts of sustainable initiatives all around the greater Flagstaff region.

SS: Frankie, I understand you got involved with the civic engagement work at NAU your first year through a learning community. Can you tell me a little more about what a learning community is?

FB:  I became involved with the ARTs (action research teams) my freshman year through an LC—a learning community. A learning community is a community of first-year students all interested and working around similar passions and ideals. Students join a particular LC because it meshes with their targeted interest, may that be law, the environment, nursing, etc. The learning community I was involved with was called SEED, which stands for Sustainable Environment Engaged Democracy. SEED is really a stepping stone for the rest of the ARTs, making students dig deep into their passions about social and/or environmental issues and discussing them amongst one another while pursuing these individual passions in some way or another. SEED was really a place where we built community as freshman students around our similar passions.

We were given the option to choose between a list of ARTs, and I chose WACBAT (Weatherization and Community Building Action Team) because the concept of community building was completely new to me and really piqued my interest.

SS: That was a lot of acronyms. What are ARTs? What is WACBAT?

FB: ARTs stand for Action Research Team and they focus around student engagement and leadership around environmental and social issues. The ARTs give undergrad students, and even grad students, the tools to create leadership skills amongst themselves, as well as a voice in their community that is so powerful and revolutionary in my opinion.

WACBAT is a student-led group that focuses around community building, as well as environmental sustainability around a just community and society. As a co-facilitator, my role in WACBAT is to have relational, 1:1 meetings with new freshman students of WACBAT, as well as community members in efforts of collaboration and participants of the other ARTs. It is my job to create a sort of open space for the students of WACBAT in order for their passions to arise while still maintaining the mission and vision of WACBAT. As a facilitator, I have to give students the tools to fostering leadership skills within themselves so that they can go out into the community and begin to build community, form relationships, and, basically, get stuff done. I work with three other co-facilitators of WACBAT, as well as a professor whose freshman seminar class is tied in with WACBAT.

SS: Looking back, why has WACBAT been such important part of your time at NAU?

FB: I’ve been involved with WACBAT for three years now, and it is honestly the reason I stayed at NAU my freshman year as opposed to transferring back home or to another school elsewhere. WACBAT has given me the tools to facilitate conversations, hold 1:1s, and, overall, achieve my passions and visions that I hold in regards to environmental and societal sustainability. WACBAT has really made me want to go into the community, become a part of it, and learn from that community. WACBAT has also given me the tools to be able to work across differences in creating this overall community sustainability.

SS: What’s been the thing you are most proud of having accomplished through WACBAT?

FB: I’m really proud that WACBAT is one of the longest running ARTs at NAU and is still going strong with students who stay with it for years. Each semester I am proud of WACBAT for different reasons, may it be because we had a successful event, really built community and relationships among our students, or even seeing those few students become civically engaged beings. I feel honored being a part of WACBAT and am very proud to be a member of it.

SS: Why is it important for students to be civically engaged on campus?

FB: This might actually be the most important aspect to me. I strongly believe that students should be civically engaged on campus because it’s their campus! I feel like a lot of students do not realize that they have the power to have their voice heard; they just need to work with outlets they have not thought of before. If a student is civically engaged on campus, I strongly believe that they will be civically engaged in all spheres of life, even after they have left college. Getting engaged in college is so important because college really gives you the opportunity to become engaged and create concrete change. It was just such an amazing experience for me in my undergraduate career to have been as engaged as I am. I can only wish that everyone has such a monumental and life-changing experience during these four years.

SS: What advice do you have for incoming freshman at NAU or any college campus?

FB: Don’t be afraid to get involved! Go out there and search for those clubs, groups, or organizations that relate to your interest because chances are, they’ll definitely be out there. Also, don’t be afraid to take chances! It’s a little cliché but extremely true. As college students, we have the ability to construct real change that is lasting and just. Work with people you never would have imagined yourself working with before. Chances are everyone around you has something to teach you that you may not even be aware of yet, and that could completely alter your way of thinking. Just be open to differences, new ideas, and opportunities!

 

Student Spotlight: UW-La Crosse’s Katie Svitavsky, City Council Member

By Katherine Kvitavsky, student, UW-La Crosse

Katherine Svitavsky

Where I go to school, everyone is involved in something. From intramural sports to marching band to diversity organizations, students in La Crosse are known for being active and engaged. It is, in part, because of this culture of service that I chose to be involved in our city government, representing a mostly-student district on the City of La Crosse Common Council. A year ago, I had just begun my first semester at UW-L. A year ago, if someone told me that I soon would be an elected official, I wouldn’t have believed them. But here I am, now entering my second year as a student, my first year as a resident assistant, and serving as a city council member.

I first chose to get involved on campus by representing students who lived in my residence hall in our campus Residence Hall Association (RHA). My job, along with my co-representative, was to be a voice for the 400 students living in my building. This experience was unique because it challenged me to think about policy and how it affected not only students living in my building but also all students on campus. Additionally, representing students in this capacity gave me valuable leadership skills, knowledge, and experience to represent them in our City Council, and I can’t give my time working with RHA enough credit for the impact it had on me.

As I meet and work with more people, I constantly am amazed at how driven they are and the  awesome, inspirational things of which they have been a part.  One of the many people I have had the privilege of meeting and working with is Karin Johnson, who I first met in a public administration class during my first semester at UW-L. Representing the campus area on our county board, I first remember being impressed with Karin’s physically being in the position, but as I became more familiar with her, what really struck me was how energetic and passionate she was about local issues.

One day in spring, Karin asked me to take a look at the open City Council position. The person who had the position before me was also a UW-L student who was graduating that year, and had resigned in April, leaving a space in the Council to be filled by appointment to fill out his term ending in April 2013. I was on the fence for a while about whether or not to apply for the position, especially considering the time commitments—trying to balance being a student, resident assistant, and council member is something that is still challenging for me at times. Additionally, I wasn’t sure I could do it. I hadn’t had much experience working with a city outside of the classroom; there was an obvious learning curve associated with the position. After some serious self-evaluation and encouragement from my peers and others, I decided to submit my resume to the Council. I was granted an interview, and then was appointed in May to the position.

As a council member, I attend a lot of meetings. I never understood the concept of “government work being done in committees” until I was assigned to the Finance and Personnel committee, where we work on, examine, and discuss proposed legislation and then bring it to the rest of the council. Additionally, I work with members of the community, non-profit groups, city employees, and other council members to shape policy for the community as well as policy specific to my district. I love the job because I get to see my and others’ efforts come to fruition, and there are tangible results from action the city takes, which is why I am running in April to keep on the council after my appointment officially ends.

When Karin suggested I take a look at the open position, I was skeptical. At first I questioned, “why me?”  when the real question should have been, “why not me?” I think so often young people, especially young women, have difficulty quantifying and articulating their skills—not only to themselves but also to others. Simply put, we don’t give ourselves enough credit for not only what we have done and are doing, but also for what we will be achieving in the future. Even if we don’t have an exact picture of our future, it is important to be energized and confident in what we will achieve.

But with our opportunities and successes comes a great responsibility. Just as I didn’t become involved without the encouragement of others, future leaders also need to have that same support. Just as Karin extended her hand to me, I cannot leave without extending my hands to others.

At times being a council member, in combination with being a student and a resident assistant, is stressful. There are times when I wish I could press “pause” and take the day—or week—off. But the rewards of this job far outweigh the stressful times, and I am constantly energized by the work I am a part of because I truly feel I am making a positive difference in the community. What I learned in this past year, the thing that has been proven to me one hundred times over, the best “tip for success” I can offer, is that there are so many opportunities to be taken advantage of if we can take ownership of the fact that we are worthy of them as well as the challenges they present. It may not always be easy, but it will be worth the effort.

About Katie:

Originally from Neenah, WI, Katherine Svitavsky is a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse perusing degrees in Political Science and Public Administration. She currently represents the 5th district of the city of La Crosse on the city’s Common Council, and is also a Resident Assistant on campus. In her spare time, Katherine enjoys kayaking, hiking, reading, and listening to music.

ADP joins American Commonwealth Partnership focused on Civic Mission of Higher Education

The American Democracy Project is proud to join the American Commonwealth Partnership, a collaborative national effort to advance the civic mission of higher education. In the guest blog post below, longtime ADP partner and civic learning and democratic engagement advocate Harry Boyte describes the initial partners, goals and efforts of this partnership.

I encourage American Democracy Project students, faculty, staff and community partners to consider submitting short videos or ideas for guest blog posts for the social media campaign that Harry outlines below. I’d love to see ADP efforts spotlighted in this endeavor to ensure that higher education is preparing informed, engaged citizens for our democracy and embracing our role as stewards of place. Please email me directly at domagalj@aascu.org with any materials you’d like me to pass on to the new DemocracyU website that will be launched next week as part of these collaborative efforts.

All my best,

Jen

Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

American Commonwealth Partnership For Democracy’s Future: A Coordinated Effort to Reclaim the Civic Mission of Higher Education

By Harry Boyte, Director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship

American colleges and universities attract millions of students from across the world. As Anthony Grafton writes in New York Review of Books (11/24/11), “at every level…dedicated professors are setting students on fire with enthusiasm for everything from the structure of crystals to the structure of poems.” Yet Grafton’s review of recent books with titles like Academically Adrift and Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given up on the Meaning of Life, also tells a sobering tale. These books detail declines in teaching, detachment from communities, and re-branding of higher education as a ticket to private wealth not public contribution. “The hordes of forgotten students who leave the university…uninspired by their courses, wounded in many cases by what they experience as their own failures, weighed down by their debts, need to be seen and heard.”

On January 10^th, the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP) will hear these students. ACP is a broad alliance of higher education, P-12 schools and educational groups, philanthropies, businesses and others, part of a coordinated effort with the White House Office of Public Engagement, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Department of Education, to begin a year of activity called, “For Democracy’s Future – Reclaiming Our Civic Mission.” ACP’s role is to “deepen the civic identity” of educational institutions, moving engagement from activities to strong commitments to education as a public good.

The American Commonwealth Partnership, launched on September 7^th in New York at a meeting hosted by Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Syracuse University, grows out of the American Democracy Project, as well as work with the National Conference on Citizenship, The Democracy Commitment among community colleges, Campus Compact, Imagining America, NERCHE, the Anchoring Institutions Task Force and other engagement efforts. It stresses the role of colleges and universities as stewards of place and anchoring institutions within diverse local ecologies of civic learning. ACP was organized over the past six months by Harry Boyte working with Cantor and other presidents, including Brian Murphy, President of De Anza College, M. Christopher Brown, President of Alcorn State University, Tom Ehrlich, President Emeritus of Indiana University, Freeman Hrabowski, President of UMBC, Paul Pribbenow, President of Augsburg College, and Judith Ramaley, President of Winona State University. It is coordinated by the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, a long time partner with ADP in its Civic Agency Initiative.

The launch will showcase “champions of change” across higher education and among P-12 partners, including leaders in Public Achievement, a youth civic empowerment initiative, from Western Kentucky University and Northern Arizona University. The launch will also release a report, Crucible Moment – Civic Learning and Democracy’s Future, which AAC&U and its advisors have prepared for the Department of Education. The report calls for civic learning to become a “pervasive ethos,” not a marginal activity.  ACP activities will unfold in the 150^th anniversary of the Morrill Act which created land-grant institutions, once “democracy colleges.” ACP champions the democracy spirit for all of education. Three initiatives are already underway:

Social Media Campaign:  Working with JumpStart Productions, producer of NOW on PBS, ACP is developing a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, beginning December 7^th, with the DemocracyU website on CIRCLE, the youth civic research center. ACP will sponsor a national competition of student/faculty-produced short (5-min) videos, each profiling a civic initiative. Coaching for video teams will be provided using an interface on YouTube. Finalists will be chosen by a distinguished panel, and online voting will determine the winner. ACP will leverage connections made through the project to cultivate vigorous dialogue on its website and through social media platforms. The social media will also support the deliberative dialogue campaign.

National Deliberative Dialogues: ACP will organize deliberative dialogues in partnership with the National Issues Forums and the Kettering Foundation on higher education’s role in American society, building on research by Public Agenda, about public opinion on higher education. The deliberative process will include an easy to use toolkit; online and onsite training and work with schools and associations in advance; a designated time period in Spring 2012 for discussions, and many ways to report back the results to the nation.

Civic Science and STEM Education: Planning is underway with the Delta Center at the University of Iowa, Molly Jahn with the College of Life and Agricultural Sciences at U-WISC and former deputy undersecretary for education at USDA, and Joel Thierstein, Senior Advisor on STEM initiatives at DoED, for a Civic Science STEM initiative, promoting curricular and co-curricular reform that combines STEM and civic agency education.

For a more detailed description of the goals, aims and contexts of the American Commonwealth Partnership, take a look at this Word document: For Democracy’s Future Star Diagram.

We the People Interview Series: UMBC’s Catie Collins

By Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

As part of the Civic Agency initiative, we are conducting a special “We the People” interview series. In this series, we interview intriguing people with different perspectives on the “We the People” phase of our work in ADP. This is the fifth of many interviews that will be included in this series.

Catie Collins is the President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC’s) Student Government Association (SGA). In her spare time, she is working to complete her senior year studying Psychology, English Literature, and TED Talks.

American Democracy Project (ADP): How did you get involved in the American Democracy Project?

Catie Collins (CC): I have the incredible luck of being a part of UMBC’s flourishing legacy of civic agency work.  The idea of civic agency is really becoming embedded in both our SGA’s culture, and the culture of UMBC as a whole. Our involvement in the American Democracy Project has really been key in helping to achieve this shift. Attending the American Democracy Project Conference in June 2011 was one of my first acts in office!

ADP: Tell us how you got involved in SGA?

Catie Collins, SGA President at UMBC

CC: In my first year at UMBC, I remember feeling frustrated and powerless. I felt like a cog in the wheels of the university, helpless to change anything, expected to play my role as a student and nothing more. That turned out to be a very large assumption – and a false one – which a friend in SGA soon corrected. They challenged me to step up and create the change I wanted to see myself, rather than waiting for someone to swoop in and save the day. My curiosity was sparked – this was an SGA that didn’t just play politics, it didn’t just play the hero – it worked with students to help them create change and feel true ownership of their campus.  It’s this mission that led me to join SGA, and to eventually run for President.

ADP: What does civic agency and the “We the People” movement mean to you?

CC: Civic agency is such a tricky thing to really define – it’s something often best shared through experience. The definition that really resonates with me is this idea of really breaking down the roles we perceive ourselves to be in – professor, student, administrator – in order to really engage each other authentically. I’ve learned to engage people as partners, to really get to know them as real people, and that has led to far more effective impact than I would have ever expected.

ADP: You’re a student member of the national steering committee of the new American Commonwealth Project – a partnership among higher education institutions and associations, the White House, and federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Education, seeks to further the movement of colleges and universities as agents and architects of democracy – what role do you see yourself playing and what do you hope the project accomplishes?

CC: I’m both excited and humbled to find myself a member of the American Commonwealth Project steering committee. My hopes for both my role and the project are centered on the same goal. I would love to see this project work as a platform for a stronger student presence in the conversations surrounding civic agency. I feel that my contribution to this project will largely be work in facilitating that connection.

ADP: How do you see yourself expressing your civic agency after your graduation in spring 2012?

CC: It’s actually been my very experience with civic agency that has completely shaped my post-graduation path.  My involvement has helped me discover within myself a deep-rooted passion for education. I care so deeply about creating systems of education that promote true engagement, both in terms of the material and in terms of one’s civic engagement. I envision investing my future in exactly this kind of work.

ADP: All our best to you, Catie!

To read more about UMBC’s civic agency work, read this previous blog post, or this one.