Meet two students who are speaking up – and getting lawmakers to listen

BELOW: State Senator and PIRG alum Josh Becker shows his support for ocean protections along with costumed CALPIRG students.

• • In Oregon, more than 40 students met with 51 Oregon legislative offices during OSPIRG Students’ lobby day. Students advocated for policies to protect our oceans, move Oregon beyond plastic, end food waste and expand the Right to Repair. Shortly afterwards, the Oregon Senate voted to pass the OSPIRG supported “Better Bag Ban,” showing bipartisan support for closing a loophole in the state’s ban on single-use plastic bags.

• • In Pennsylvania, 16 students from Student PIRG clubs at the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Villanova met with more than 20 of their senators and representatives to discuss two priority clean energy and climate bills currently under consideration in Harrisburg — and they received support from 18 of those legislators.

• • North Carolina PIRG students from the University of North Carolina held 20 meetings with state legislators and staff on issues ranging from preventing microplastic pollution to reducing climate-altering emissions from fast fashion. Watch a fun summary of their lobby day on Instagram.

• WASHPIRG students from the University of Washington and The Evergreen State College met with more than 45 legislative offices to advocate for ending plastic pollution and protecting consumers. The University of Washington campus newspaper published two follow-up stories covering their lobby day, one on a plastic waste cleanup law and another on Right To Repair reforms students are promoting. And the best news of all: the Washington state legislature has passed all our priority Right To Repair and recycling reform bills!

It’s that spirit of civic-mindedness and idealism that led Caleb to found and become president of PIRG’s campus club at Georgia State.

Caleb first got involved in the Student PIRGs’ nonpartisan New Voters Project, which has helped register more than 2 million young voters and made more than 3 million contacts encouraging young people to vote since its inception in 1984. In Caleb’s words, he was drawn to the idea of “students taking charge to register their peers,” and once that campaign ended, he worked to create a lasting home at Georgia State for student-led, student-run issue advocacy, from saving bees from pesticides and other threats to protecting Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp from pollution and development.

That commitment to growing youth political empowerment led Caleb to Santa Barbara, California, last summer, where he helped direct Environment California and CALPIRG’s youth-led grassroots outreach efforts, including an effort to engage Californians in expanding and strengthening California’s unique network of ocean protections.

Having done so much alongside his peers to educate the public and mobilize support on a variety of issues, Caleb understands the importance of educating legislators and conveying all that support to them too. For him, it’s not just about helping leaders to make informed decisions. It’s also about modeling what healthy democratic engagement should look like, in Georgia and in D.C., and inspiring more young people to help make the system work by participating in it.

“Even in our current political state, there are so many issues that cross party lines. Air pollution. Water pollution. Even predatory textbook industry practices. These issues affect students everywhere, and students need to lend their voices. That’s why I’m very much looking forward to leading a team of students who’ve never lobbied before. Giving students the opportunity to share their personal stories and opinions about important legislation, to be able to facilitate that experience for college undergrads, really builds a lifetime of civic engagement.”

“When I talk to my friends and classmates, I hear a lot of concern about what’s happening and also a lot of struggle over what we should do about it. Politics isn’t easy to navigate, and productive approaches to politics aren’t well-publicized. But if you’re a young person and interested in doing something that makes a real difference, simply meeting face to face with legislators and asking them to do the right thing is where many ultimately successful campaigns start out.”

A junior majoring in environmental studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Akshita has been learning the ins and outs of campaigning and advocacy as her PennPIRG club’s Waste Is Out of Fashion coordinator. To raise awareness of the impact of clothing waste on our planet and help her peers be part of the solution, Akshita helped launch an affiliated campus group called Thriftsburg to run drives collecting textile waste from first-year dorms to resell. 

For the past two years, she also helped drive her chapter’s federal advocacy efforts around another waste issue: protecting our health and that of wildlife by stopping industrial plasticmaking facilities from discharging tiny, pre-production plastic pellets into waterways all over the country. 

“This year, we’re meeting with six Pennsylvania congressional offices to talk about supporting the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, which would require the Environmental Protection Agency to act to prevent the discharge of plastic pellet pollution. Last year, we were able to schedule two meetings on this issue – so, we’re making some progress. 

“Getting results takes time and patience, but more and more students at Pitt want to see action to stop microplastics from entering our environment and our bodies – definitely more students this year compared to last year. I’m excited to talk with legislators about that and see how that translates to political momentum on waste issues of all kinds, in Harrisburg and DC.”