Madeleine McCormick| News Editor
As the summer months lackadaisically drifted by, BVU junior Kailey Childers, found herself wanting to immerse herself into her community and began volunteering around her hometown of Odebolt, Iowa, for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Childers spent her time walking from door-to-door, talking with the people in the community and making calls specified by call lists.
“I kind of got wrapped up in it,” Childers said.
She was later persuaded into applying to be a fellow, which is the campaign’s term for an intern.
Childers’ position with the campaign as the “youth organizer” requires her to spread the word about the campaign across multiple platforms of social media, by phone, or going door-to-door, then reporting back to a communications representative on Clinton’s campaign.
Childers has met Clinton twice through a marketing technique called a “house party.”
“We had Hillary come and speak at one [a house party] and you get a chance to talk one-on-one and get to know them a little bit better,” Childers said.
Childers’ opinion about the importance of politics was drastically changed when her volunteer work with the campaign led her to become the youth organizer for the committee; promoting the campaign and politics to the college demographic.
“I’m going to be centered around BV and the BV community and also the surrounding counties just kind of helping out getting more college student aged people involved with campaigning and what it all takes to canvas and get candidates elected,” Childers said.
Childers is promoting the beginning of an organization on campus called “College Democrats.”
BVU currently has the “College Republicans,” a growing group on campus with political power, bringing candidates to speak on campus about issues from a Republican point of view.
“Currently, BV only has College Republicans, so I feel like the other side isn’t very well represented in that. And even though you’re welcome to be a part of it anyway, I feel like everybody deserves to have a voice,” Childers said.
The process to start an organization on campus is something Childers is putting a lot of work into.
Filling out applications, finding a faculty or staff member to advise the organization and most importantly, getting the members that it needs to flourish, are all things that Childers says she is working to do.
Childers is hopeful that at least 20 people will sign-up for the organization, this way the members can hold debates and have effective conversation.
“Once more people get involved in it, they can help spread the word too and realize if it’s something they want to get involved with or not,” Childers said.
Childers is happy to be a part of the Clinton campaign and has met her twice in the last few months.
“She likes family values and I think that’s kind of why I really like her,” Childers said.
By the end of this year, Childers hopes to grow the College Democrats to be as prominent as the College Republicans, so the groups can interact with one another to involve more people with politics and get them interested in the happenings around them.
