Amongst the chaos of campaigning and primary elections, students have taken it upon themselves to get involved in the hectic political process. They have spent hours standing outside rally buildings, and most recently, the Family Arena to see senator and democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders.

Junior Paige Jamieson, who attended not only the Bernie Sanders rally, but also the Donald Trump rally March 11, is not yet old enough to vote; however, still feels a responsibility to get involved.

“I feel like, although I can’t vote and do anything with this election, it’s important, at least right now, to get involved and try to be active in the political system that I’m going to be participating in for the rest of my life,” Jamieson said. “So, I figure it’s important to get out and get yourself educated and involved as young as you can, even if, you know, I can’t do anything yet.”

Jamieson thinks Sen. Sanders is popular within the younger generation because of his positivity despite his being surrounded by negativity.

Hunter Rodgers
“I think it’s the fact that Bernie’s movements all positivity, and definitely in the political process, there’s a lot of hate and a lot of negativity and, you know, it doesn’t matter if you’re Democratic or Republican, there’s always some sort of negative side to just about every candidate,” Jamieson said. “I think just about everything about Bernie, so far, has just been a positive movement and wanting to go in a good, right direction.”

Junior Olivia Walker, also too young to vote, was at the Bernie Sanders rally and getting involved.

“I really like what he’s doing, what he stands for,” Walker said. “A lot of the LGBTQ things and Black Lives Matter stuff, and what he thinks about immigration policies.”

Senior Elise Wantling, a first time voter, decided to attend Sen. Sander’s rally in order to insure she was voting for the right candidate.

“I went so that I could hear him speak since I was trying to decide who to vote for,” Wantling said. “I was pretty sure he had my vote going in, but I figured I should actually go and hear him speak because I had the chance.”

Former student Tyler Tran was at the rally, not only because he likes Sen. Sanders as a candidate, but because he likes the political process and feels the need to get involved.

“I’m a big fan of Bernie Sanders, I enjoy politics, I like taking part of the whole process, I feel like it’s very important for people to get involved,” Tran said. “These are people who will definitely make a big change in our country, so I think it’s important that we pick the right people and throw our support behind the right people.”

Young people and students are becoming involved in the political process because they know, eventually, they will be picking the leaders of our nation and that is a big responsibility.

“Who we pick makes laws a policies that affect us as people, until we fix the foundation of which our country is built on, not much will change,” Tran said.