Newbie Here!

Written by: Jane Sturges on Jun 17, 2009 11:44 AM EDT

My name is Jane Sturges and I am a new field/political intern at DFA in Burlington, VT.  I grew up in a suburb of Houston, TX, and go to school in Minnesota.  As a member of moderately liberal family in Texas, I usually saw things differently than most of my peers - and my town was one of the more liberal towns in the state!  I remember being called "retarded" when I expressed a preference for Senator John Kerry over Pres. George Bush in 2004.  I grew up always having to defend my liberal beliefs and the beliefs of my parents. 

When I arrived at college, I found a safe haven - a place where the majority of students were young liberals like me, and gradually sank into complacency over rarely being challenged to defend myself.  During the election od 2008, however, I realized just how important it is to stay critical of the political process - even my own party and candidates I support need to hear my concerns and my voice.  I got involved in DFA a while ago, and I hosted a viewing party for the documentary "Uncounted" about election fraud and electronic voting machines.  Between DFA's periodic petitions and events and the exciting election, I began to get very interested in grassroots political organizing.

However, I really broke into the grassroots scene when I took a political science seminar about Social Movements, and we were assigned a group project to plan, create, and execute a social movement of our own.  My group chose to work with homeless LGBT youth in Minnesota, and we had three prongs - a consciousness-raising video presentation and discussion, a letter-writing campaign in support of the Minnesota Youth Advancement Act, and an afternoon volunteering at the GLBTQ Host Home Program in Minneapolis.  This was incredibly rewarding and motivated me to apply to DFA for an internship to extend my involvement in grassroots organizing.

So that's why and how I got here!  I just started today, and so far it seems like a great decision for me to be here!

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