Ko'u Hopkins hosts Emma West and Melody Colonel as they discuss student advocacy and leadership as young leaders in university.
Transcribed by AI with Human Review:
Ko'u Hopkins: Hello, I'm your host, Ko’u Hopkins, and for today's Community Voices, we are going to hear from some incredible women. They are at the forefront of the Student Advocacy Coalition as they are lobbying for the entire University of Illinois system. They just had Lobby Day at the Capitol, where they were able to meet with representatives and senators as they lobby for the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana, and of course, the University of Illinois Springfield. From that, could our guests please introduce themselves?
Emma West: Hi, I'm Emma West. I am a student here at UIS, and this is my second year in Student Advocacy Coalition.
Melody Colonel: Hi, my name is Melody Colonel. I am a graduate student here at UIS, and this is also my second year in the Student Advocacy Coalition.
Ko'u Hopkins: I'm so happy that you guys are able to come in today. What is Student Advocacy Coalition for those who do not know?
Emma West: So Student Advocacy Coalition is a student organization here at UIS. And we advocate on behalf of U of I system specifically for funding higher education.
Melody Colonel: We have the opportunity to be the only student organization that works directly with the University of Illinois system. So we're able to connect with people at all levels to advocate for students, you know, as Emma mentioned, for funding, but also for other opportunities, whatever students desire, where we've been in leadership together.
Ko'u Hopkins: I love women empowering women. I love those stories. So I was actually with you guys for Lobby Day, and from my point of view, I think it went pretty good. But do you feel like your message or messages, have they been heard by the representatives and senators?
Emma West: So looking back at this past Lobby Day, I 100% do think that our legislators did understand our message. But I think the biggest thing is following up with them, which I am 100% going to do. So although some of our meetings were only a couple minutes long, and with capital time, our time isn't fully guaranteed, but following up and writing a letter or sending a nice e-mail and kind of answering questions that they were asking then and that I didn't quite know the answers to that day, all that I can do by following up with them.
Melody Colonel: I think one of the biggest things about it is that they want to talk to us. as students living in their districts, they want to hear from us a lot more than they want to hear from system officials or people who their job is to essentially ask the state of Illinois for more money. They want to hear about our experiences and having the opportunity to kind of share those with the representatives and senators was the opportunity really of a lifetime. You know, not often do you have potential to share your stories with elected officials. And being right here in Springfield, we have the power to do it a little bit more often.
Ko'u Hopkins: Stemming off of that and with lobby day, I know some of the senators or representatives, they had a lot of questions for you. And what do you think is the toughest part about being an advocate? Is it the questions? Is it the preparations? Or is it just kind of team? What do you guys feel that's the toughest part?
Melody Colonel: I think the biggest thing is taking and facing confrontation. As someone who handles confrontation, I'd say pretty well. I hate confronting people when it comes to myself. I'm not a great self-advocate. I am much more comfortable advocating for those around me and other students, other people in the University of Illinois system. But when it comes to myself, I always get almost a little defensive. So kind of remembering to pull myself back because I did have a few individuals who I was able to connect with that day that did question my beliefs, my story, a little bit more than what felt comfortable, especially being a 22-year-old college student. You know, I wasn't necessarily expecting the level of intrusiveness that sometimes comes with some dynamics. it can be hard to prepare for that at times, especially when you don't know what to expect, because you can prepare all you want, but you never know how someone's going to immediately react.
So when people started pressing about my personal beliefs, Even at one point, delving into religion and political affiliation and how it didn't necessarily make sense how I believed versus how I functioned kind of caught me off guard. And I had to remember, first off, I'm leading a group right now, so I need to keep my cool and make sure that my group doesn't feel the pressure that I'm feeling right now. But then also, I need to answer because at a certain point, allowing people to just continually walk over you isn't something that is great. So taking the opportunity to kind of stand up for myself was definitely my best. biggest struggle through the day, but also, the biggest opportunity for growth, because I had to take that and move with it and be able to continue on and then move right into the next meeting. So, it was a busy day, but at the end of the day, I feel like they heard me, even if they didn't necessarily always agree with what I had to say.
Emma West: So being an advocate, a lot of people just question my knowledge. A lot of people kind of doubt our abilities because like I said, like Melody said also, we are very young. We're still pursuing our education and our careers that we're going into are not quite in this field exactly. So kind of what Melody said about confrontation, some people, not only legislators specifically, but a lot of people like to confront us heavily and really get into some deep questions that, like I said, we don't know the answers to or sometimes are just super complex questions and even some of the most higher ups in the system and even the best professionals in the field have a hard time answering those questions. So finding a middle ground where we can keep our composure and learn at the same time and still grow.
Ko'u Hopkins: So I hear you guys talk a lot about being team leads and being leaders. Could you maybe describe to those who do not know what Lobby Day is like, what the preparation is like, and what a team lead is?
Melody Colonel: Yeah, so looking at Lobby Day, this year was the 17th annual University of Illinois System Day at the Capitol. So it was a day where students from all three system schools, as well as professors, faculty, staff, and a variety of other positions that are connected to the University of Illinois meet in Springfield. So we're split into groups because, Illinois is a big state, but there's a lot of representatives across the board. So we get broken into essentially where our home base is. So for most students, you know, it was going to be Champaign-Urbana, it's going to be Chicago, it's going to be Springfield. But, you know, some students that still use their home addresses, got their home districts. So for me, I now live in Bloomington-Normal. So I had the opportunity to actually meet with my representatives.
But essentially, we had a training about a month before where we actually had the opportunity to lead the training on how to be a leader at Lobby Day. So I know that was a lot of leads. But when looking at everything, essentially, we had a group of about 40 students who we kind of put through the ringer in one day. We We taught them all about how to lobby, how to advocate for students, how to be comfortable leading a group, and how to navigate the confusing halls of the Capitol. So we spent the day kind of taking them through what everything is going to look like to kind of just prepare them for the day. So then flash forward about 3 weeks later, we get together at the Capitol. We met for like this big lunch. We ate, got to listen to different speakers from the University of Illinois system, as well as different representatives and people involved in the governor's office before we headed. over to the Capitol to do actual lobbying.
So what did the team leads do? Essentially, we carried students and staff and faculty from office to office to talk to our representatives while also navigating how to allot time to everyone that was with us. So that way, you know, everyone had the opportunity to speak and communicate their stories because, you know, they want to hear from us. It's great to include the staff and faculty, and we loved having them there. But the biggest thing was being able to share what my life is like as a University of Illinois student. And yes, I said University of Illinois because we are a University of Illinois system. So that day, we weren't necessarily just representing UIS, UIUC, or UIC. We were representing a system because when looking at the state budget, which another side note, the reason why it was when it was is because the proposed budget had just been released by the governor's office. So we were lobbying in support of the budget that had a 1% increase for higher education funding. But we essentially went from office to office to convey why we feel our representatives and senators should support the budget increase, how the University of Illinois system has impacted us as individuals, and what their input does for us in our future. So I know that was a pretty long-winded answer to essentially say, hey, we carted around about 350 people around the state capitol for four hours. But in the grand scheme of things, that's kind of what we did.
Emma West: Also, being a team lead can carry a lot of pressure. So we were given materials, especially the day of our team lead training. We went over a lot of different topics that we would be discussing in the capital. A lot of what if situations we went over, what if the legislator says this or asks this question. So we went over all of those different scenarios and then day of in the state capitol, the team lead was responsible for having all the materials to give to the legislators and of course being the team lead. So that includes first introducing the group to the legislator, and then obviously discussing what the plan was and why we're in support of the budget, answering any questions, and then we go to sharing our stories. So each group had about I want to say 2 team leads in each group.
So thankfully, for the new lobbyists in U of I system, no one was alone. So if there were any new people, which there were plenty of new people, they were put with someone more experienced. So any of the new lobbyists that we trained were not alone, since we did double up with group leaders. So we had, I want to say, 22 different groups. So these team leads did a great job at kind of taking the reins and taking the lead and talking to the legislators, which was phenomenal. It did end up to be a phenomenal day for all of us.
Ko'u Hopkins: I'm so glad that you guys are able to take on roles like this. And I have a follow-up to this, and you guys already kind of touched upon this, but do you believe more young people should try to join advocacy even outside U of I system?
Emma West: Absolutely. So advocacy, like I said, is for absolutely everyone. It doesn't matter what you're advocating for. Like Melody said, if it's on social media, you know, that's one way of doing advocacy. But with social media and, you know, less people are kind of talking to each other. And in this day and age, it's kind of less common for people to go out, go to town hall meetings and kind of share their story. And we want to change that. We want to change that perspective and teach everyone that, hey, you are able to go out and advocate. Whether you go to your local village meeting, whether you're going to the state capitol, no matter where you are, even if it's at your university, even not in U of I system, everyone deserves a chance to share their opinion. And that's how we get anything done in the world, is by speaking up and sharing our opinions. And that's the main message that we want to come across to everyone.
Melody Colonel: Honestly, I think more often than not, people are advocating without realizing that's what they're actually doing. You know, when we put a strong label on advocacy, people often think it's this big upstanding thing, but it's so much more simple than it really sounds to be. So I think sometimes just doing a little bit of reflection and if you're working towards something that you care about, that's advocacy. If you're standing up for what you believe in, that's advocacy. If you're doing what you feel is the right thing, that's advocacy.
Ko'u Hopkins: I have one last burning question for you. And what do you hope for the future of the Student Advocacy Coalition as you guys graduate and kind of move on with your lives?
Emma West: So personally, I really hope that it just continues to grow and we continue to inspire. So years ago, when U of I system went two years without a state budget, that's when Student Advocacy Coalition was established. And because of that, one situation that U of I system was in, that kind of started this entire organization. So Because of that, we just want to continue and we just want to keep fighting for what we believe in. We just hope that whoever comes after us and the next generation, whoever it may be, the tradition just continues and lobbying never ends. And the lobby day every year at the state capitol is just as impactful as it was this year.
Melody Colonel: I think the biggest thing to remember is that advocacy especially as a college student, doesn't start and end with politics and local government, and it doesn't always need to be directly tied to a larger cause. I think as students get more comfortable having a voice and continuing to fight what they believe in, it will continue to grow. There's always opportunity to do something. whether it's the smallest thing or the largest thing, we always have the ability to do. Sometimes doing is the best that we can. And I think that's all that anyone asks. But as we look towards the future, we hope that we continue to grow because like Emma said earlier, advocacy is for everyone. Yeah, I got a political science degree, but I'm also working on my MBA right now. So, you know, I'm stuck a little more in the business field. But advocacy is something that I feel passionate down to my core. And I think if more students kind of realize that, hey, I don't need to have this political science background, I can actually do this. And you know, if there's just like one person that hears that and can take it and run with it, I feel like at least my mission in the advocacy realm would be complete.
Ko'u Hopkins: You guys are just so inspiring. Thank you so much for coming in today. Do you have any last words, anything you want to finish with?
Emma West: I'd like to just say, keep fighting for what you believe in. It doesn't matter what scale it's on. It doesn't matter if it's talking to one person in public, at your local grocery store, or in front of 1000 people at your campus. Just keep fighting for what you believe in.
Melody Colonel: I think in a world where you can be anything, being you is the most important thing. So taking that, knowing that, and using that to your advantage is something that's so big. Know your story, know how to use your story, know how to convey your story, because that's going to take you so much further than I think anyone ever really gives you credit for.
Ko'u Hopkins: Thank you so much, Emma and Melody, for coming in today. And thank you for listening to today's episode on Community Voices.
