High-school students often participate in grass-roots political campaigns, but rarely have they taught others how to run them — that is, until Campaign 101.
Campaign 101 is a project designed to train high-school and college students in grass-roots campaign skills. The training will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 9 and 10, at the Fairfax Education Building at 3917 Old Lee Highway and is led by a group of seven high-school students across Fairfax County.
Shaula Evans, adult adviser for the committee, said that working with these students has been a very rewarding experience. Evans met many of the students working on the campaign for Del. Steve Shannon (D-35th).
"A number of them [the students] worked on my campaign last November," Shannon said. "Shaula was impressed enough with the energy of the young people that she thought it would be beneficial to have a more official way to train young people in the political process."
Evans said that she and the organizing committee have e-mailed Democratic organizations all over the state of Virginia to help bring support and participants to Campaign 101.
Shannon, who represents Vienna and Oakton, said that he will be speaking at the training session and is one of several elected officials to help support the program.
"Congressman Jim Moran has been a huge supporter of this program and given us financial support, as well as Walt Mika of the Braddock District Democratic Committee, which has given us finances as well," said Jeff Lieberman, graduate of Woodson High School and Campaign 101 committee chair.
Justin Wilder, a rising junior at James Madison High School and recruitment chair for Campaign 101, said that there are about 10-15 people registered as of July 1 but that they hoped to have close to 50 people by the day of the event.
The group is using what they call Operation Fire Jump to recruit more participants.
According to their Web site, http://rollupyoursleeves.blogspot.com, the group is passing out information about Campaign 101 to people coming out of the new Michael Moore movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."
"We're playing off Michael Moore's movie with Operation Fire Jump," said Wilder, "and trying to spread around the state and get people from outside Northern Virginia."
Lieberman said that Operation Fire Jump has been a great success thus far but that it is still ongoing.
The purpose of the training session is to get students involved in politics, which includes giving them an opportunity to meet politicians.
"The last day of the training session is going to include a job fair, where elected officials and people running for office are going to come visit and meet with the people who have been trained," said Teresa Daniels, recent graduate of Oakton High School and finance co-chair.
Members of the Republican party also spoke positively of the program.
"You have to applaud any group that works to get young kids involved in the election process and in voting," said Republican-voiced School Board member Tessie Wilson.
Eric Lundberg, chairman for the Fairfax County Republican Committee, said he felt it was essential to the two-party system that young people get involved in politics. Lundberg also stated that the Leadership Institute in Arlington is a non-partisan program that has been giving young people training and helping them get involved in politics for over 15 years.
The students on the Campaign 101 committee come from a variety of schools throughout Fairfax County, including Woodson, Oakton and James Madison, though it is meant to include students from all over Virginia.
"A goal would be to have at least one kid from every high school in Virginia," said Lieberman.
Evans said that Operation Fire Jump was taking place in Northern Virginia as well as in Richmond, though responses from the Web site have included locations as distant as Florida.
Lieberman hopes that the group will be able to expand in the future and also that it will have an effect on the upcoming election in November.
Shannon did not know what effect the program would have this year but was optimistic about the future of Campaign 101.
"We're trying to make a long-term investment in the party by getting young people interested in the political process and giving them the skills to participate effectively," he said. "The real benefits are 10 years down the road."
Wilson said that it is difficult to say what effect this program will have on the election and that they might be limited, since many high school students are not eligible to vote.
Shannon, Evans and all of those involved with the program, however, seemed very excited about its future.
"Once we have this mass of kids trained to work on campaigns, hopefully in the future you'll see a change in Virginia politics," said Daniels. The fee for Campaign 101 is $50, and information is available at http://rollupyoursleeves.blogspot.com.