Why Politics? - Lowering the barrier of entry so that everyone can serve our country
Graduating from college during an economic downturn, I was unsure of what my next step would be. I reflected on something my mother instilled in me from a young age: “Always ask” she would remind me before I went to a friend’s house, or to check-in on an elderly neighbor “how can I help?”. I decided during this period of uncertainty to answer that question by joining AmeriCorps VISTA. During my service year, I helped to create and implement a Mobile Food Pantry program for the surrounding rural communities of Southwest Virginia – I extended my commitment, skills, and education to helping my neighbors living in a vast food desert.
This act of formal service became a defining core experience of mine. I served alongside mothers who could finally feed their children fresh fruits and vegetables and with elected officials who wanted to ensure that their constituents had their basic needs met. Service bound us together: it allowed my new community to look past my Yankee accent and bring sustainable change to their hometowns.
Service brings people together, so that they can outline and tackle their community’s unique issues united. Formal service doesn’t feel like a privilege in the moment. It feels like a sacrifice that others are unwilling to make, but later, while working in DC in a different kind of food desert, I learned that not everyone is offered the same opportunity to serve that I so easily took.
Over 70% of U.S. youth don’t qualify for military service, and the low pay and long hours that AmeriCorps and Peace Corps years demand create a space that only those with the right support systems can inhabit. With this knowledge in hand I knew it was time to step into an arena that I wasn’t too familiar with - politics. I began to understand that in order to support the opportunities I felt were so important to young adults, I had to work with elected officials to advocate for funding. That’s why I took a position at Service Year Alliance which advocates for national service funding at the federal and state level. I was drawn to politics because I’d seen the unique skills that service can produce in people, and I wanted to lower the barrier of entry so that every young adult had an equal opportunity to serve. Part of lowering that barrier is ensuring that more service alumni enter the political arena to enact that change and create that opportunity.
At New Politics Leadership Academy I’m able to work towards that goal. Politics isn’t for everyone who has served our country, but those service alumni who choose to enter politics many times surpass their wildest dreams with just a little bit of encouragement and help. One of my favorite stories to reflect on is an AmeriCorps alum who participated in Answering the Call and Staffing School, and decided to run for a District Leader in her hometown. Her goal was to get 4,000 votes. Through her hard work and community building she ended up getting 11,000 votes and winning the election. Her national service experience gave her the knowledge to identify where the need was in her community and the skills to remedy it. NPLA gave her a path forward and her story speaks to why I dedicate my time to ensuring more service alumni are encouraged to think about politics. When people run for the right reason, with a servant leader background, they achieve success, and can make a positive lasting impact on a large scale.