Please enjoy this guest post by Sachi Madan and Alex Madaras, two students with experience working on political campaigns and other related activities. Their bios are at the end of the post.
Students are becoming more motivated than ever to engage in politics. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, however, they are also finding more creative ways to show their dedication and commitment to change. Importantly, many are turning to campaign work as an outlet for their energy and an introduction to the day-to-day work of politics.
Most campaigns have yet to fully harness the potential of young volunteers, student workers, and interns. While often viewed as a viable workforce for phone banking and postcard writing, young people have a unique perspective to contribute to campaigns, especially in this era of unprecedented political change. In an increasingly digitized campaign environment, that perspective is now accessible over social media and platforms like Zoom. While it might be tempting to allow limited resources and new modes of operation to cut off relationships with young interns and volunteers, productively engaging young people in campaigns is more necessary than ever.
Productive engagement means providing diverse and meaningful opportunities to young volunteers and interns. This not only helps build skills for future leaders to lead their own campaigns and movements but also contributes to an overall higher level of political engagement in young people. The more high school and college students that are involved in local campaigns, the greater number of voter registration drives, social campaigns, and politically-engaged young people you will find at those institutions.
Seeking out young people with ambitious goals and plenty of political energy can help your campaign extend a hand to the local youth population— if that relationship is carried out purposefully and with care.
Here are some concrete pieces of advice for campaigns that want to be great mentors and trainers for the next generation of political leaders:
1. Respect why young people are volunteering for your campaign
Treating young interns with respect and valuing their skills and contributions is absolutely paramount. Campaign staff at all levels should understand and appreciate the perspective of young staffers and interns, and actively work to incorporate them into a positive atmosphere. Of course, interns and volunteers should gain valuable skills and experience, but if the campaign culture and direction are not affected at all by young people’s perspectives, interns are not being valued to the fullest extent. Young interns may be more diverse and open to change than long-time campaign staff. That is valuable. Allow the campaign to be positively moved by their energy and ideas, instead of viewing their shaking things up as a negative.
2. Proactively engage prospective student workers
Grow a positive and symbiotic relationship from the very start. Advertising campaign opportunities and recruiting applicants doesn’t have to be a tedious process. In fact, the way you present opportunities and carry out the application process can have a sincere impact on the quality of campaign work.
One of the most obvious places to find politically-motivated young people is in their schools, and it’s important to engage there purposefully. This could mean contacting staff and student contacts who are already politically involved, and asking them to reach out personally to those they believe could be strong candidates. It could also be speaking to college and high school political clubs about your campaign and inviting students to apply. Campaigns should pay special attention to how outreach efforts incorporate equity and justice initiatives. Is the campaign only visiting affluent, mostly white high schools? Are HBCUs on the docket when engaging college students? Is the campaign’s messaging encouraging to students who may not have had close contact with campaigning before? In order to foster a diverse applicant pool, campaigns must cast a wide net. This means actively seeking out applicants who are less likely to find the campaign on their own.
Campaigns often overlook social media outreach in their staff recruiting. Connecting to local political clubs, movements, and individual activists on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn could be the key to bringing in applicants who otherwise wouldn’t have knowledge of your opportunities. While a certain type of student may show up to a College Democrats meeting, nearly all students of differing racial, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds are on social media. When campaigns do engage a diverse set of applicants, it’s important to be mindful of the differences that arise in the way students interview, present their resumés, and interact with the campaign. Campaigns should always strive to be supportive and understanding of all students’ needs. Discrimination in the outreach and hiring process should not be tolerated.
3. Pay students whenever possible
While a genuine and personal outreach campaign can motivate young people to apply, financial compensation is another important incentive. Many campaigns are recognizing that the phrase “experience pays” is losing meaning as high school and college students struggle to manage an unpaid, unmotivating internship with other responsibilities. Simply put, if a campaign can pay its interns, it should. Many times it is more useful to have a small team of fairly-compensated interns rather than a large team of unpaid workers. Interns that are compensated feel more valued and contribute more energetically, bringing higher-quality work to a campaign. By offering pay, campaigns overcome a barrier to equity. Paid internships attract students from different backgrounds because many young people need to work to support their family and won’t be able to afford an unpaid internship for any length of time.
For smaller campaigns, compensation might be difficult or even impossible. Even a small monthly stipend or one-time bonus can be more helpful than no pay at all. However, if compensation isn’t possible, it’s important to be up-front with applicants and build strong connections that motivate and support interns in other ways. The reality is, though, that providing compensation wherever possible creates a more productive environment that helps both the student and the campaign grow.
4. Help students build relationships
It is important to use multiple tools and platforms to engage student interns throughout their time working on the campaign. Build personal connections by having weekly or biweekly one-on-one meetings where staff and interns can get to know one another, students can voice their concerns, and staff can get direct feedback on the campaign experience. The time could also be used to impart valuable career advice to students who could one day become senior campaign staff. Ultimately every group of interns is different, and all ideas mentioned are suggestions from our own experiences. Listening to the experiences of your interns should be your first priority in creating a positive campaign environment. Part of the campaign experience is having some exposure to senior staff and the candidate themselves, and it’s important to remember that this can be extremely impactful to students!
5. Encourage students to craft their experience
One-on-one meetings allow staff to understand what motivates the students, and what they would like to work on. Menial work is important, but shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all of the campaign experience. Students may be interested in growing their skills in marketing and social media, financing and budgeting, or human resources and management. By learning what each student is interested in, campaigns can designate weekly training and shifts where interns can learn more about these areas and help out. This helps interns learn more skills - something that interns are keen about and will help them in finding future jobs. Let them choose which skill-building sessions they want to attend, and help them to shape their campaign experience around the areas that interest them. It’s important for interns to follow their own passions in addition to doing phone banking. Also remember that our generation has grown up entirely in a virtual world - interns often possess online communication skills that are essential today. They can help you create a rocking social media presence!
Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind that interns from different backgrounds will come to the campaign with differing skill levels and areas of focus. Some students may need extra time to get familiar with new types of technology, campaign jargon, or the pace of work. Differences should be embraced and accommodated, never shamed. Part of skill-building requires interns to feel comfortable asking questions of staff at all levels, knowing campaign staff will meet them where they are.
6. Create a positive culture
Building a sense of community will help interns and staff enjoy their time on the campaign. Hold barbecues, lunches, or movie nights to help interns feel comfortable with each other. Now that our world is much more virtual, adapt team-building to include icebreaker sessions over Zoom, NetflixParty nights, or a virtual cooking class. Work-life balance is important both as a student and as an adult, and these events can help break the ice and make for a more relaxed and cooperative team.
Opportunities to connect interns from different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds make the campaign environment more inclusive and dynamic. A vital part of a healthy campaign culture is not only hiring and treating interns well regardless of their race, sexuality, and gender but also recognizing and celebrating differences that interns bring to the campaign. Building relationships between individual interns, and between interns and staff, ensures that interns feel comfortable reporting bias and harassment if it does occur, and reduces the chances that they will be mistreated in the first place. If the campaign does not already incorporate regular acknowledgment of race and gender issues and a plan to root out microaggressions and biased hiring and promotion decisions, it should adopt one. Interns should be welcomed into an honest space where they feel safe to express their opinions and identities.
Students are often just as busy as adults and are choosing to spend their time helping the campaign. They are the future leaders of the world. Learning tangible skills will help them grow and make them more likely to want to contribute more to the campaign itself. Effectively engaging students in your campaign results in a productive connection that is meaningful to both parties. Creating these win-win relationships can only improve the future of campaign politics.
Sachi Madan is from Bellevue, Washington and is a rising sophomore Robert W. Woodruff Scholar at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a current intern at T’wina Nobles’ campaign for WA SD28 and is also active in campus life at Emory as she serves on the executive boards of the Young Democrats of Emory and the Emory International Relations Association. She is also involved as a Legislator in Emory College Council. Outside of classes and politics, Sachi enjoys cooking, travelling, and reading.
Alex Madaras is a recently graduated senior from Mason, Ohio who will be heading to Northeastern University in the fall. She is the Editor in Chief and Director of Publications at the civic engagement nonprofit Next Generation Politics where she enjoys writing and editing political content as well as managing Blog staff. In addition to her involvement in local politics and organizing, Alex enjoys language-learning, playing music, and going biking.
Picture: College of Staten Island