Students volunteer for the Obama campaign, gaining insight into the process of politics
The presidential candidates have been on the campaign trail for the past year and students have been right there with them. Juniors Pradnya Narkhede and Joyce Tien have volunteered for the Obama campaign in the Bay Area, representing the youth, one of the least active age groups in politics.
Tweeting for advocacy
Narkhede was not very politically literate at first. However, last year, she started to follow political campaigns, even those at the state and congressional levels. Eventually, she stumbled across a volunteering opportunity in the Santa Clara County to be a rally supporter and campaign organizer.
More specifically, she was able to advocate the campaign through social media and once had the privilege of tweeting from Obamaís account.
“I don’t know the password, but when I went [to volunteer] a couple of times, I had to tweet a few things for the truth team — mainly on economic policy — place verification … whenever Romney’s campaign came up with a new attack,” Narkhede said.
In addition to gaining practical knowledge on Obama’s contributions to the nation, Narkhede was able to learn the most from the personal stories she heard on the campaign trail, gaining a new perspective from talking to people who had benefited from Obama’s policies, including Cal Grants and Medicare.
“I liked to see what sort of tangible impact legislation has on people because as a youth,” she said. “I just felt so sheltered from politics in the beginning because it didn’t really affect me. [Seeing these people] really enhanced the consequences and importance of politics.”
Hitting up the phone bank
Tien was greeted again and again by the dial tone.
As a volunteer for the Obama campaign during the summer, she regularly phone banked, calling lists of potential voters to urge them to vote. It was the experience of getting hung up on that really helped her develop interpersonal skills.
“The first thing I thought [when people hung up on me] was, ‘You’re rude,'” Tien said. “But I came to realize that people don’t want to get involved, and I saw that you can see one thing from a variety of different perspectives.”
Yet by working in the system, Tien started to feel an obligation to politics and being aware of the world around her, and decided to become more politically literate. As a result of working in the campaign, Tien has found herself watching the candidatesí speeches and keeping up with the election.
Through her work, Tien was also able to better understand the political attitudes present in Cupertino, especially among students. According to Tien, she was the only teen volunteer in her group, probably because of the focus students place on academics as opposed to politics.
“It’s just how schools are oriented here,” she said. “With politics, you need to be very up-to-date with it, and people just don’t have time for it.”
Polling ahead
Government teacher Ben Recktenwald identifies volunteering as part of the way to overcome student ignorance about politics. In particular, he is providing the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters with high school student volunteers who would work at the Cupertino polls on Election Day.
“[Volunteering] gives you an opportunity to feel like your country is a democracy and gives you a chance to be a part of the system [that] your [parents’] taxes are paying for,” he said. “You see how it works.”
Recktenwald also sees volunteering as a springboard for students to get more involved in politics in the future.
“[With volunteering] everywhere across the country, there are little pieces of democracy happening in society,” Recktenwald said. “Hopefully, it encourages [students] to get into politics — voting and becoming a political person.”
