Wellstone Action!

posted by Jessica Nizar

MARCH 04, 2009

Before I attended Campus Camp Wellstone at Occidental College last fall, I knew one thing: I wanted to work towards the idea of social justice. I saw social justice as giving others the opportunities that I am so lucky to have. I didn't know how to do it, I didn't know what organizing was, and I certainly didn't have the slightest clue of how to run a campaign. Camp Wellstone didn't simply give me the skills to make changes to my campus community, but also empowered me to recognize my own ability to make real changes.

Before the camp I worked as a youth leader in a gang prevention program and as the director of a big-brother big-sister mentoring program in downtown Los Angeles. I felt strongly that the kids I worked with could some day have the opportunity to go to college if more people would fund after-school programs in the most neglected neighborhoods of Los Angeles. This was not a reality I felt like I could accomplish alone, yet I was frustrated with college students' apathy and ignorance towards the issues that face these communities.

In attending CCW's training, my approach to improving my Northeast Los Angeles community shifted from direct service to organizing people and building power. I began to see ways in which my power as a college student could best be utilized to organize my campus. CCW allowed me to network with other like-minded activists and form lasting partnerships and friendships essential to make our goals a reality. A month after the training, we created a month-long series of events that educated and promoted community engagement in our Los Angeles community. Our campus' Intercultural Community Center created an alliance of cultural clubs to create strategic partnerships in planning campus events and actions. Though the training did not result in the formation of any immediate campus campaigns, it did plant the seeds of change in the students and in myself.

The following summer, after much encouragement from CCW's monthly career opportunities newsletters, I came across an internship as a New Leader with the Center for Progressive Leadership in Washington, D.C. Confident in my passion to make progressive change, I applied for the position and subsequently moved across the country to spend my summer in the nation's capital with 40 other young progressives and working on national campaigns with Planned Parenthood. Training others in effective organizing and seeing first hand the connections between national policy and direct organizing was an invaluable experience that I would never have applied for without the support of CCW and is an experience I certainly will never forget.

In returning to my last year of college, I longed to bring back CCW as a Project Manager for Occidental College's Center for Community Based Learning. As a part of the student organizing team to bring CCW back to our school, I am excited to help others become conscious of their power and to direct them toward intentional and strategic action.