College Students Respond to Obama’s Call for Change

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama challenged college students to go change the world. It’s a meaningful invitation in the wake of tuition hikes, budget cuts and a dismal post-graduation future, when inspiration can be a little difficult to find. Today, GlobalShift has selected three students to profile who are changing the world in their own right.

KU senior Ben Cohen strikes a pose for social change, which he believes comes from the sheer determination to make it happen.

1. Ben Cohen, The University of Kansas, senior in political science

When then-freshman Ben Cohen arrived at the University of Kansas in August of 2005, he had no idea that he’d spend the next four years establishing himself as an instigator of political and social change on the Jayhawks’ home turf.

“I badly desired the chance to be involved in politics and social causes, which I had a hard time finding the opportunity for growing up in Topeka,” he says. “Coming to college obviously provided me with a wide range of causes and organizations [to get involved with].”

Now 21, Cohen is involved in dozens of causes across campus with various roles and responsibilities, including President of Delta Force, KU Young Democrats Member-at-Large, and Parliamentarian for Young Democrats of American Jewish Caucus.

“Ultimately, I’ve found myself working on two main issues: sustainability and sexual health and safety,” Cohen said, referring to his advocacy work during KU’s Domestic Violence Awareness Week. “The general motivation to see things change.  I think of myself as a very contrary person, that is, I always have something I feel like I have to oppose.”

Cohen also involved with the Student Senate, serving as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Senator and Multicultural Affairs Committee Chair, as well as member for KU Amnesty International and Commission on the Status of Women. The ability to create change, he says, lies with the determination to do it.

“It goes back to the old cliche that “where there is a will, there is a way,” because in these economic times, it becomes about knowing how to convey a message efficiently,” Cohen says. “What can be said on a large display can just as easily be said on a piece of poster-board, with some markers, and when you have a good community of activists and volunteers to draw on, there are always those creative enough to find media that express a powerful message without breaking the bank.”

Cohen encourages students to get involved in their own grassroot causes. For students who want to give back but are unsure of how, he stresses the importance of networking.

“No matter what the culture of the institution might suggest, there are always at least a few fellow activists doing something,” he says. “Find the people and organizations around you, work with them, and learn from them.”

2. Miranda Olzman, San Francisco State University, senior in speech communications

S.F. State senior Miranda Olzman is helping high school students to change the world one speech at a time.

To discover Miranda Olzman in her element, one only needs to track her to Santa Rosa High School. With pads of yellow paper, a handful of newspapers and endless supply of pens, she launches into a discussion on gender theory, sexism and the power of language to influence change. As the coach of the parliamentary debate team at Santa Rosa High School, Olzman, 27, is thriving in her element as an instigator of change with her students.

“I coach them on debate techniques to be competitive, but it’s also far more than that,” she says. “I work actively to teach them about the power that language holds for shaping our reality.”

Olzman, herself formerly a debater, is a force to be reckoned with by most accounts on the California debate circuit. She has a reputation for fairness and competency that is largely unrivaled in the activity, as well as being a proponent for change. From an early age, she recalls a preoccupation with establishing equality where it didn’t exist. She identified language as a critical component of creating that equality.

“As I’ve aged, I’ve begun to focus on the language aspect of equality in regards to gender, race and sexuality which can be harder to explain to people,” Olzman says. “People love to say, “well those are just words.”  For me, I deeply believe that words have the most power to shape our beliefs and reality.”

As the head coach of Santa Rosa, Olzman teamed up with Santa Rosa alumni Aaron Peterson, a freshman at Stanford, to bring debate to the community. With the dedicated students and their parents, she spends many hours a week teaching debate theory, discussing how to execute specific arguments and learning about current events. Across the country, debate programs are losing funding, and Olzman’s fledgling start-up is no exception. It decided earlier this year that the debate team would face a substantial budget cut. Yet in the wake of Olzman’s noticeable success (she qualified two teams, including a set of freshman girls with no previous debate experience between them, to Nationals last year) the same community she’s assisting rallied around her.

“The support that I have around me is incredible.  The parents of my students got together to appeal [the budget cut] because they believe in the importance of debate for changing their childrens’ lives,” she says. “We got the funding from another source because of them, and the teacher I consult with. What we are doing is important, for these kids and the community as a whole.”

The change has also been evident outside of medals, a far more gratifying success for Olzman.

“I’ve had students come up to me in the last year and say, “I don’t say ’that’s so gay anymore, and I tell my friends not to either.”  At the end of our last season one of my students said, “I didn’t realize how deep gender inequality went until I started listening to you.  Thank you.” My point isn’t to teach them my perspective but to influence them to think critically. So far, it’s been amazing to watch them grow from newbie debaters who barely look at headlines, to students who read newspapers in between classes,” Olzman says.

Olzman, who also lobbies for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights, believes any person is capable of creating the change they want to see.

“As trite as it sounds, just start talking to people about what you want to change–the power of dialogue is underestimated,” she says. “People that you’re associated with may already be active in this, or have connections for you.  Some people just want information, and if you provide them with that, then there might be two of you on your activism now.”

KU senior Tanner Willbanks credits the late Jana Mackey for inspiring him in the crusade to end domestic violence.

3. Tanner Willbanks, The University of Kansas, senior in political science

When KU law student and domestic violence advocate Jana Mackey was murdered by her ex-boyfriend two years ago, it had a lasting impact on the surrounding community of Lawrence. But for Tanner Willbanks, the death of his friend signaled the need for change. In Jana’s memory, Willbanks became involved in the various causes on the KU campus dedicated to ending violence, including the Domestic Violence Awareness Week Coordinator for Delta Force, Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness Coordinator for KU’s Commission on the Status of Women, and a past president of KU’s Amnesty International chapter.

“In a very real way, my life as an activist began when Jana’s ended,” Willbanks wrote in a tribute column for the weblog Everyday Citizen on July 1. “I made a promise on the day of Jana’s funeral to myself and to her memory. I promised that I would spend every day of the rest of my life working to make sure that we would eventually live in a world where women did not have to live in fear of the men in their lives.”

While Willbanks, 30, credits Jana’s murder with inspiring him to become an activist, he also acknowledges he is an unlikely advocate for women in abusive and violent situations. As a male, he’s faced the accusation of being “less than a real man” for believing men and women to be equal in all things, and for planning to attend graduate school studying Women, Gender and Sexuality.

“I am inspired to constantly continue to fight for my causes by the people around me and by my conscience. I see the statistic that 1 in 4 women will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetimes, and I cringe,” he says.”I can’t rest without doing something to stop that sort of epidemic.”

With the help of his friend Liz Stuewe, Willbanks created the Jana Mackey Distinguished Lecture Series as a way to honor Jana’s memory and promote social activism. The experience of creating the Jana Mackey Distinguished Lecture Series taught Willbanks that students can make a difference at the lowest level by creating organizations to meet the needs of the community.

“Students can get involved in activism wherever they are. Student activist organizations tend to be named in ways that are descriptive of the issues they deal with, which makes it quite easy to pick one to take an interest in.  That being said, if your institution doesn’t have an organization dealing with the issues that you are passionate about, start one,” Willbanks says. “And never think that your goal is too high. [Liz] and I were having a conversation about wanting to do something to honor Jana’s legacy. She sent an email to some people at the University and less than a year later we had the president of the National Organization for Women giving the inaugural lecture. So, don’t let anybody tell you that you’re shooting too high.”

Cohen, Olzman and Willbanks are just three students who have dedicated their lives to leaving the world a better one than they found it, serving as an inspiration to others. On their home campuses, students should consider joining a club or organization dedicated to a cause they feel passionate about, or start their own. With over 15 million students currently enrolled in colleges, Obama is correct to place the burden of change on us.

How are you changing the world?