ASU students interested in encouraging political and civic engagement now have the opportunity to do so thanks to a partnership with Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
ASU’s involvement in the IOP began this past May when Jonathan Koppell, dean of the College of Public Programs, was reunited with Trey Grayson, director of the original IOP at Harvard University, at a reception for former IOP members.
The two agreed to incorporate ASU as the 25th school in the IOP’s National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement.
“We’re really excited to work with ASU,” Grayson said. “It’s a great school with a great reputation, and it’s fun to work with Jonathan again.”
One of ASU’s IOP goals for this year is to integrate an online voter registration tool called Turbo Vote. Turbo Vote will provide an online link at the beginning of class registration each semester that would show students the process of registering to vote, said IOP participant and economics junior Cary Kelly.
Koppell was not only a member of the IOP, but he was also a student leader during his Harvard years. This provides ASU with a clear understanding of the IOP’s mission to encourage civic engagement and youth involvement in electoral politics through tactics formed by each participating university. Through the National Campaign, which began in 2003, IOP schools across the U.S. work together and share ideas on how to fulfill that mission.
Grayson said the National Campaign will be beneficial to ASU because it will connect the university to other schools comparable in size.
Although in years past students from different IOP schools engaged primarily through an annual conference at Harvard, ambassadors to the campaign are starting to organize Google Hangouts throughout the year to share ideas. In some instances, these virtual chats will even allow universities to broadcast lectures from significant speakers to other schools within the IOP.
“That’s one of the exciting developments in the last year — creating this more than just one weekend a year (experience),” Grayson said.
A month ago, ASU sent Kelly, along with applied ethics graduate student Shireen Nouri, to Boston to participate in the annual Institute of Politics conference at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Kelly and Nouri were chosen by the university for their outstanding dedication to service.
For the annual IOP conference, Harvard pays for room and travel for two student ambassadors from each corresponding school, and each school pays for one or two college advisers to facilitate the students. During the conference, several discussions are held regarding youth and politics as well as lectures from various Harvard faculty members.
College of Public Programs program director William Valencia is the coordinator of the ASU IOP program. He works directly with the two student ambassadors in implementing their ideas at ASU and discussing political engagement with students from the other schools involved in the National Campaign.
“ASU has a rich and diverse history of service, and by becoming a part of the IOP National Campaign, we’re hoping to really deliver to the network something it doesn’t have and could benefit from,” Valencia said.
In the future, ASU hopes to open the doors to the conference and the IOP “to any student interested in and dedicated to service,” Valencia said. ASU faculty will be working with Kelly and Nouri to devise a plan for picking future ambassadors for the conference.
“It’s exciting to talk to other undergraduates (through the National Campaign) and getting to connect with inspiring individuals,” Kelly said.
Contact the reporter at taylor.seely@asu.edu
