As our political landscape gets only more and more turbulent, it’s now more important than ever to learn how to navigate our sociopolitical culture and it’s media.
You don’t need to be a PoliSci major to be interested in these student organizations. I collected a list of the 5 clubs that will put you on track to being an educated citizen.
Your School Votes
Possible club names: Every Vote Counts; Love to Vote
With the next presidential election scheduled November 3, 2020, now is the time to start thinking about voting. Millennials and Gen Z potential voters have surpassed the older generations in number since the last election in 2016, but have shown up to the polls less than their counterparts.
According to CampusVoteProject.Org…
Historically, young adults have voted at lower rates than older cohorts. They are also the newest members of our democracy, move more frequently, are less likely to have a driver’s license, and are less likely to be contacted directly by political campaigns then older age groups, all of which are barriers to registering and voting… Young people cite barriers such as missing a deadline or lacking other information as the reason they did not register at much higher rates than older age groups.
The goal of a student organization on voting is to get its members and others educated on current issues, candidates, and the registration and voting process. All of which will be useful knowledge throughout your entire life.
Things to do in a Voters Student Organization
- Get educated on issues at national and local levels
- Learn how our voting system operates
- Learn about national and local elections and how to register
- Run voter registration booths on your campus
- Learn how to help your friends, family, co-workers, and classmates registered to vote
Great Resources:
New Literacy Club
We spent so much time in our secondary education English classes learning how to read novels. We often discussed themes, styles, point of view, credibility, symbols, motifs, and much more.
Our high school teachers taught us that just because we know how to read a book doesn’t mean we know how to understand it. Funny enough, the same can be true with how we digest the news.
With so many sources of media – print, broadcast, internet, and social media we are completely consumed by information. Catchy headlines tend to draw us in and screwed statistics and sources leave us scratching our heads.
It’s time to take your education into your own hands to learn how to
Things to do in a New Literary Club:
- Attend workshops that’ll help you develop your news literacy skills
- You can learn how to sort through the vast amount of information we get on a daily basis or learn how to spot a misleading story before you share with your friends and family on social media.
- BYOM(Bring Your Own Mug) Weekly meetups to read and discuss the news over a cup of joe
- Spend one morning a week discussing and sharing the news with your fellow members. Spend time analyzing your collected stories’ facts, sources, and purpose.
- Attend speaker events hosted by journalism professionals to pick their brain on how the industry works
- The more you know about the news, the more you’ll be able to pick better content to read and make decisions from.
Political Talks
Other possible names: Open Grounds; Middle Ground
Your campus will most likely have an organization tailored to your ideology, background, and political leanings, but the best part about going to college is being subjected to fresh perspectives even if they don’t agree with your own.
Engaging in a bipartisan student organization to discuss issues all across the political spectrum will help you become a better-educated citizen. Seeking other points of views can strengthen your stance, change your perspective, gain you more knowledge on issues and/or introduce you to all the gray area that issues come with.
If you’ve ever seen Jubilee’s Youtube Series Middle Ground, you can attend a similar thought-provoking and eye-opening political discussions on your campus.
One of the best descriptions for a student non-partisan open forum comes from the University of Michigan organization, We Listen.
WeListen is a grassroots, campus-based organization working to bridge the American political divide. Through biweekly discussion sessions on topics ranging from gun control to free speech, we facilitate small-group conversations (not debates!) between people with divergent political viewpoints. We’re looking for students of various backgrounds with views across the political spectrum (Democrats, Republicans, or neither, who are interested in learning why someone might not agree with them. We hope to show that political disagreement is not inherently hostile, and that constructive political discourse is both possible and valuable.
Things to do in a Political Discussion Organization:
- Listen in on student discussions to get an idea of perspectives on issues your peers are preoccupied with.
- Discuss your point of view with others and compare and contrast your thoughts with others.
- Listen to speakers that are leaders for their issues or field for fresh insight
- Have your specific student organization engage with their counterparts at bi-weekly meetings.
Student Think Tanks on Current Affairs
Possible names: Bright Future Coalition; Change Makers; A Chance for Change
While it’s easy to see all the problems and flaws within our country, most people don’t think of ways to solve them. Engaging in a student think tank will stretch your critical thinking skills and put yours into a solution-oriented midframe.
If you’re interested in making social, political, or economic differences in today’s society, a good place to start is flexing your ideas with your peers in discussion and debate.
For example, our healthcare system is far from perfect and has been a hot topic of debate for years now. Deep dive into why our healthcare system is set up the way it is and propose a solution to the system. Listen to others perspectives and ideas, then work on compromising until you reach a solution that everyone can agree on.
Disclaimer: My example problem is extremely broad and your think tank would probably benefit from finding a more specific problem than “Our healthcare system is broken, what should we do.”
Not only will a solution-oriented think-tank regarding current affairs keep you up-to-date and educated on events going on around you, but you’ll learn to approach news with an action mentality as opposed to a passive one.
Things to do in a Current Affairs Student Think-Tank:
- Discuss specific problems we are faced with today and vote on a topic to discuss for upcoming sessions.
- Attend research workshops (snacks, coffee, and tea optional)
- Develop solutions to propose at your next meeting
- Look for loopholes in other ideas to help strengthen their proposed solutions
- Think of ways you can help enact change on a personal or group level
Model Congress
Interested in becoming a senator or representative or are you simply just interested in learning the inner workings of how our country discusses bills and possibly passes them into becoming laws.
Model Congress creates simulations of the real thing. These simulations range in their complexity and can allow students to role-play as a multitude of positions within congress, even going as far as including roles as press, lobbyists, or the national security council.
Normally, the club leaders will choose a topic and branch of government based on suggestions from members. Leading up to a proceeding, members will conduct research on government procedures and the topic at hand and then carefully prepare their bills. Before the event, members can promote their bill to other members in order to gain support before the bill is presented to the whole to be debated.
Overall, model congress should seem like a fun thought experiment that will help you feel more confident in your knowledge of how our federal government operates.
Things to do in Model Congress:
- Discover how to create, propose, promote, and vote on bills
- Practice your debate skills as your proposal and justify your bill through a series of legislative branches.
- Learn how to conduct research on current affairs and studies that relate closely to your proposal.
- Work in a team setting on a sub-committee
- Exercise skills in public speaking, compromising, writing, debating, and leadership.
- Follow real bills through social media and discuss them with your peers.
- Use what you’ve learned to contact your local representative to address your current concerns within your community.
What do you think?
Do any of these clubs interest you? Are there any cool student organizations concepts at your university based around current-affairs that we didn’t talk about in this article? Comment below because we love hearing from our readers!
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