Student Activism
The Importance of Student Activism Excerpted from Wikipedia
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environ- mental, economic, or social change. Modern student activist movements vary widely in subject, size, and success, with students participating in private and public sectors of all ages, races, socio-economic backgrounds, and political perspectives. Some student protests focus on the internal affairs of a specific institution; others focus on broader issues such as a war or dictatorship. In the United States, student activism is often understood as a form of youth activism that can be oriented toward change in the Amer- ican educational system, civil rights, law en- forcement, nuclear weapons, to a wide range of issues. Student activism in the United States dates to the beginning of public education, if not before. Some of the first well documented, directed activism occurred on the campuses of black institutions like Fisk and Howard in the 1920s. The next wave of activism was spurred by Depression-era realities of the 1930s. The American Youth Congress was a student-led organization in Washington, DC, which lob- bied the US Congress against war and racial
Students formed social move- ments that moved them from resistance to liberation.
discrimination and for youth programs. It was heavily supported by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The counterculture era of the 1960s and early 1970s saw several waves of student activists gaining increasing political promi- nence in American society. Students formed social movements that moved them from resistance to liberation. Major contemporary campaigns include work for funding of public schools, against in- creased tuitions at colleges or the use of sweat- shop labor in manufacturing school apparel (e.g. United Students Against Sweatshops), for increased student voice throughout education planning, delivery, and policy-making (e.g. The Roosevelt Institution), and to raise na- tional and local awareness of the humanitari- an consequences of the Darfur Conflict. There is also increasing activism around the issue of global warming.
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Leonardo Da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.
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Students Pocket Guide for Civic Engagement
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