Motivated by the upcoming election, students are creating and joining youth political organization fellowships.
Student engagement and interest in politics as a whole has surged, and numerous social media campaigns by both sides have encouraged them to get out and vote. Some, often those considering a future career in government, have decided to take a step further and get involved in political organizing. Senior Kiran Chaudhry-Bishop and junior Vijay Kannan are two such students.
Chaudhry-Bishop and Kannan are the social media & outreach director and communication director, respectively, for the Maryland-based Youth for Harris Fellowship. The fellowship’s purpose is to help Kamala Harris and lower-level Maryland Democrats get elected while giving students the chance to gain experience in political organizing.
“A lot of the teachers will say history repeats itself, and I think it’s definitely true in the sense that we have to be able to learn from our past in order to build a better system of representation,” Kannan said. “When we’re working with young activists, it’s important for them to recognize that we are creating history. This is going to be a historical election.”
The fellowship holds weekly meetings via Zoom, and leading up to the election its members have participated in phone banking, canvassing and other methods of political organizing. Following the election, the officers plan to focus more on hosting guest speakers and workshops.
“In terms of the political organizing that we’re doing, that will probably cease around the elections,” Chaudhry-Bishop said. “But when we look at talking about policies, getting people engaged and able to network with elected officials, those kinds of meetings will continue past the election.”
The fellowship hosted an interest meeting at WJ on Oct. 9 with the help of social studies teacher Elizabeth Muehl.
“I thought it was fantastic, we have so many kids in this building that want to be involved, and it’s really a breath of fresh air,” Muehl said. “It gives me a lot of hope.”
Freshman Veer Anand was one of the students who came to the meeting. Anand, who has been involved in Model UN for years, said his interest in politics, specifically political organization, motivated him to attend the meeting.
“I’ve already gone canvassing and stuff, but they said I’d meet people that could open a lot more doors,” Anand said. “It looked like a really great opportunity to meet influential people who can really help me kickstart a career.”
While an Instagram account ostensibly representing a Youth for Trump Vance Fellowship was recently created, it has 13 followers, no posts and did not respond to an interview request. Regardless, both Chaudhry-Bishop and Kannan said they fully supported the creation of such an organization.
“If that is a legitimate account, I think that’s great,” Chaudhry-Bishop said. “It shows civic engagement on both sides of the aisle and it shows that people are taking what they’re passionate about and getting involved, and that’s what we really want to see to protect our democracy.”
Additionally, the pair said that the government classes they had taken at WJ, most notably AP US Government and Politics and AP Comparative Government, helped to spark their interest in policy and political activism. Specifically, Chaudhry-Bishop said the latter helped him realize the importance of civic engagement.
“One of the big things we talked about in that class was democratic backsliding, and that’s a main reason why I’m passionate about political activism right now,” Chaudhry-Bishop said. “No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, we have to understand that being civically engaged helps protect our democracy.”
