 And it's one of our most popular panels and so we're really lucky to have so many great young professionals from San Antonio, from Central Texas, with us here today. And so I'm going to introduce our moderator and she's going to take it from there. So Ms. Mary Dixon is the Interim Dean of Libraries for UTSA, overseeing four libraries here on campus, downtown and the main campus. She has her PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and she has her MA in Communications from Texas A&M. So thank you so much, Mary. Very, very short story. I worked at the Annette Strauss Institute back in the day when it was five graduate students in one tiny office with a professor who thought that politics was incredibly important and young people should not only be exposed to it, should be trained in it. In 2002, when I took full-time job with that professor who became a director of the Annette Strauss Institute, he ran out looking for funding for something called the New Politics Forum. We hit the road and encountered not just roadblocks but absolutely astounded folks who could not imagine why on earth we would want to make more little politicians and thought, oh dear, but broad had faith. And we knew that this was an important endeavor and indeed an honorable one when you train people to behave ethically and focus on principle and on the importance of bipartisanship. And so we were able to connect with you again at the Hatton W. Sumner Foundation, a foundation that is very forward-thinking in the way it believes that representative democracy can only thrive if we train young people to be exceptionally ethical, smart, critically thinking politicians and political alternatives. And they're the ones who continue to fund this now 14 years later. And so for me to have seen this in its beginning moments when we really weren't sure anyone would even come, we certainly thought we might not get funding. And to see 14 years later all of these wonderful people sitting in front of me and these distinguished people sitting beside me really almost brings tears to my eyes because it meant that Rod was right and all of that work was worthwhile. And so I hope you will know that you are now part of a legacy of people who have gone on to do amazing things with their lives and they started right here. So I thank you as much as I thank these folks for being here on your Saturday on this glorious March, Texas day in here learning about politics and learning from each other. So I wanted to start off with that. I could sit and read introductions for these folks, but I think it would be a lot more interesting to let them start off by introducing themselves and just sharing a brief sense of who they are and how they got to be at this table. So I will start it off with TJ. All right. Hello, everyone. My name is TJ Mays. And thanks to Annette Strauss Institute and the new politics forum for having us all here. I am the Chief of Staff for Councilman Ron Nurenberg. He represents the I-10 corridor in San Antonio. So if you think about the S to Texas, La Quintera, the RIM, Medical Center, UTSA main campus, that's his district. I grew up in that district. Went to Texas Tech for college, ended up majoring in political science and went to law school and fell in love with politics and public service. I've been doing that in the five years since I graduated from law school. And I'm really excited to be here with you and talk about ways that you can get involved or give any insight into how we can be useful to you in your career path. So thank you. Hi, I'm Maya. I'm still an undergrad. I go to UT Austin and I double major in government and political communications. And I am the current president of the Moody College of Communication Council. I also am a Hillary for 2016 volunteer. So I did my winter break. I went to New Hampshire. But I feel like I have a lot that I can relate with you guys as I'm still in my undergrad. I'm still figuring out what I'm doing. Post May, I met Drew in the Archer program. I know a lot of you know about that great program where they send UT system students to UT, to DC to find great internships. And so I'm excited to let you guys know about the different things I've learned across the way and maybe learn from some other people on my panel as I am still joining my professional career. Hi, everyone. My name is Antonia Okafor. I am the Southwest Regional Director for Students for Concealed Carey. And I kind of started my, I would say, political career, but advocacy, activism career, becoming a precinct chair for the Republican Party in my local county in Denton County. I'm from Dallas, so he's had Central and South Texans, but I'm representing North Texans, I guess, over here. So I started that and I went to school at the University of Texas at Dallas and got my VA and international local economy. And then I am currently pursuing a master's degree in public policy at UT Dallas as well. So I'm, she's talked about Hillary. I'm a Rand Paul supporter and I'm still Randy. So I'm going with that. But yeah, more of the movement, the liberty movement that is kind of coming about from that within the Republican Party. So doing a lot of work in that as well. Hello, everybody. My name is Hannah Beck and I'm the Executive Director and one of the co-founders of Move San Antonio. There's another one sitting right over there, Chris Stewart, who you guys might know. I was born in St. Louis, Missouri and I moved to San Antonio just in time to start third grade. I've been in San Antonio since then, graduated from Douglas MacArthur High School right around 410 and Broadway. Went to UTSA, studied political science, women's studies and really learned a lot about activism while I was there. In 2012, I was the President of the Young Democrats. I started the National Organization for Women at UTSA shortly after that. And then Chris, myself and our dear friend Eddie founded Move in May of 2013. So I graduated from UTSA in May of last year. So I very much empathize with students, though I am not one currently. And I've been Executive Director of Move for about two years, but as one of the founders have been working to civically engage young people for just about the past three or four. So I'm really excited to be here with y'all. Okay, so I'm going to ask a couple questions and then I want you guys to go through. This is really about you. So my first question is, everybody has to start somewhere. Where do you feel like your start was and how did you make the decision to jump in? And we'll start with you. Alright, so I started college as a broadcast journalism major. I thought I was going to be on ESPN talking about the Spurs. I swear to God that's true. And it turns out that I had a face for radio. So I ended up majoring in political science because at that time it was the 2004 presidential election. And John Kerry and George W. Bush were running against each other. And you know how it is on campus during these things. Everyone's arguing in the dorms, staying up all night, talking about it. And once the election was over, everybody stopped talking about it and I wanted to keep talking about it. Texas Tech has a program. I know Texas A&M has a similar program. I know Archer here at UT System has a similar program where they'll send you to Washington, board you up in a place to live there and place you in an internship. So I started working for a guy named Shet Edwards. And Shet Edwards was a Democrat who represented Waco and College Station in 2007. George W. Bush was his constituent. It was the 17th most Republican congressional district out of 435. And it was represented by a Democrat. Nancy Pelosi had just become Speaker. Democrats had just taken over the house. So he was in a really opportune spot to make a big difference given sort of his profile. And I remember when I was asking how do you keep winning? You know, I was watching the West Wing. I'm sure a lot of y'all did. You know, I thought it was all about these great policy debates. And it said they basically told me every single person in this office, their chief title is Constituent Services Director. So if somebody calls and it's not getting their Social Security check, that is your priority. Your priority is not to talk about minimum wage, road versus wage, all the things that people really like talking about. And that really left an impact on me. I was an intern. And I remember once they let me make a call to a Central Texas volunteer fire department and let them know that their congressman had obtained funding for their fire department. And I remember this guy was almost in tears when I called him and told him that because now they're able to buy trucks. They're able to protect their community better. And after that I was hooked. You know, once you've had that conversation, going and billing hours in a law firm didn't have the same appeal to me. So that was my start as an intern in an internship program, like one of those available to many of you. So I guess the point of my answer is to really sell and plug those programs to you. If you have an opportunity to do something like that, it will change your life. And I know that some folks in this audience have done it, and I think that they would say the same thing. I think what separates me from the previous panel, they all mentioned they came from civically engaged families. I did not. I was raised by a single mom and sure both my parents. Every American have impassioned beliefs about politics, but maybe they're not informed or they don't actually vote. And so as a child of a single mom growing up in San Antonio, I somehow gained this very idealistic view of the world and how things could be better if we just talked about it and we just worked really hard, we were really driven, and if someone says something sexist, you'd be like, hey man, don't do that. And so I just realized that what I could bring to the table was my voice and my voice for public service. And so when I got to UT, the Archer program was just peak. And I knew I could go junior year and I was a freshman. And so spring of my freshman semester, I just got an internship. And it was for a pack for Texas Democrats getting into the Texas State House. And I just, I mean, it didn't matter. I just needed an internship and I was going to gain more experience until I can go to D.C. and ultimately intern in the White House Office of Communication because when you have a dream that you want, you have to go for the stars. And you have to think, yeah, I'm just some Latina from San Antonio, but you can do more if you push yourself to get experience now. And if you say, okay, maybe that's really high up there, maybe being White House intern is like for fancy people. But you know, you can do it if you start gaining experience now. If you take every opportunity and don't say, is this the opportunity I need to take right now? Like is this going to be the most beneficial to me? Or should I wait for this internship? Because that paralyzes you and then you can't gain experience because you're so focused on what's going to benefit you next that you're not actually learning. And so that's kind of how I got my start. And so we have a similar start as well. Well, my parent, my father actually was, when I was about seven years old, he went to prison. And so I was also raised by a single parent mother. And so I have this story that's similar to a lot of people on the other side. It's kind of funny, you know, people hear my story and they're like, oh, well, you must be like, no, that's not liberal in here. Like, you know, because let's me say this story on the other side. But I like to come to the table and say that, no, actually, I was raised by a single parent and little means. And I became this like Spanish Republican conservative advocate. So, but I mean, that's my story of coming from a public service background as well. And, you know, I went to, I was in Girl Scouts and that really instilled in me this love of public service. And I went all the way to my senior year for my Gold Award, which is equivalent of the Eagle Award if you don't know about that for the Boy Scout. And so I just really have this love of public service because my family was at one time this entity that had to get help from other people from the community in my area. So I really understand and empathize with people who don't have what we did or were able to because of the people who wanted to help. And so through that, you know, going to school and everything, I really became passionate about not only going to school, but also helping and being an activist while I was in school. And so, particularly with my start coming to Students for Console Carry, I was starting this organization called Network of Enlightened Women, a chapter at UNC Dallas. And through no fault of any one of my group, we were stopped by the campus police because we were advocating for pro-second amendment gun rights policies because last year we had a legislative session that I was dealing with on campus. And so through that whole time being there and being stopped by the administration to advocate for something that was so important to me, I really delved into gun rights advocacy and was subsequently, or subsequently became the Southwest Regional Director because of this passion and I had to show the conservative voice on campus, but to show also conservative voice in Texas and in the United States. So I think I've had a lot of different starts, actually. 16-year-old Hannah, very different from 18-year-old Hannah, different from 20, 22. I'm 23 now, I'm sure. In October when my birthday is, I would say the same thing about 24-year-old Hannah. Ultimately, I think my interest in politics started when I joined debate in high school, which I actually did not do willingly. My sister, who's two years older than me, her debate partner was graduating. So her junior year, my freshman year, she was like, hey, I need a debate partner, it should be you. And I remember saying to her, like, Olivia debates for nerds. So no, I don't know why I thought I was cool when I wasn't, especially in high school. But she convinced me to join the debate team. So sophomore year, her senior year, we were partners. And I did the exact same thing sophomore year. I recruited one of my really good friends named Irwin, and I was like, you have to join him be my debate partner, junior and senior year. So Irwin and I, well, I can tell you through the three years I did debate, I only missed one tournament ever. Every tournament that I was able to go to, I went to. Every tournament that I qualified for, I went to. So I think I've probably been to around 100 debate tournaments. And I think part of the reason I loved it so much was the discussion. Part of it was the competitive aspect. I really liked winning, which we did pretty frequently. And part of it was the community. You know, due to like, I wasn't raised in a single mother household, but my parents were divorced almost from the time we moved to Texas. And I was, I think, looking for a space where I could really grow and have a family. And that's what, you know, my debate coaches, debate team, et cetera, became for me. So there are some other influences, you know, community-based experiences, relationship experiences, et cetera, that have influenced, you know, new starts for my political career. But I think that's the first one. Okay, one more question for me, and then I'm opening it up to y'all. I would like to know if you could give everybody one piece of advice. But it has to be based on something that you've learned through the rough experience. What would it be? That one thing where, wow, I really wish I'd known this before. Anybody can jump in. If you make a mistake, you just own it immediately. The natural inclination is to be to shift blame, but it ends up making you look worse. And I learned that the hard way on one or two occasions before my 24th birthday. And, you know, I violated my own rule of making the same mistake twice. But after making it twice, both in law firm situations, not in political situations, that would be my big one. Yeah, so I mentioned I went to New Hampshire for a month. That was the first time I had done something that I didn't have to do it. I wasn't getting paid. I didn't know anyone else. I paid for my flight and I went and I lived there for a month. Every day woke up at 9 a.m., stayed till 9 p.m., knocking on doors, making calls, recruiting. And so it was like a really big step. And I remember sitting on the plane when we landed in Manchester thinking, am I making a mistake? Because I could be making money. I could be selling clothes at Banana Republic and making money. But I did it. And it snowed and I'm not used to that. It was very hard to walk five miles every day, door to door. But other fellows would complain. They're like, this is really hard work or I'm really tired. And the whole time I was like, I flew out here. You're going to do something and it's going to be hard. Know that you're doing it for a reason. I believe in my candidate and that's why I went. So if you are going to do something that's going to have an emotional toil on you, a physical toil on you, believe in it because you're going to guess. Did I do the right thing? So make sure it's something you believe in because it's going to affect you. If you talk about a door, someone's going to be like, I don't like this. I don't like politics. Bye. And it's going to feel bad, but if you are doing it for a reason you believe in, you can just brush it off your shoulder. I would say for me, my struggle has been owning my experience and owning the things that I have done in my past. And that's why I'm automatically like shady. Like, oh man, I shouldn't talk about that. I mean, when I mean that, I mean, I'm someone who's very passionate. And when I get into something, I'm in it, you know, completely. And sometimes, you know, some people will have this, you know, I look at other people who have this career plan. I did this because it leads to this and leads to that. I'm like, well, I just really love talking about that and I did it. And then you have to kind of look at this mosaic of different experiences and then you figure out eventually, and then finally starting to get that, hopefully, that common thread of how they work together and how I can make a career out of it or, you know, go for it, make money out of it. But I think I had to work through that, you know, as a millennial and I think a lot of us are dealing with that right now is how do we put all these experiences, these internships that we have, these unpaid internships that we did in college or in graduate school and how do we get that common thread so we can actually, you know, make a living in the future. And so I would say just keep going with it. I mean, in the end, I know it sounds so cliche, but sure, you can be making six figures or whatever, but if you don't love what you're doing, then what's the point? And if you're not making an impact in your world, but we're here because we want to make an impact and we love public service. So in the end, if we're not doing something that we're passionate about and we can't make an impact on other people's lives, then really seriously think about what you're doing and if the compensation is, you know, worthy of it. So I've had a lot of experiences that have been giving me life lessons and Chris, who's our board chair, which makes him my boss, will definitely attest to the fact that I've made a bunch of mistakes as an executive director at the age of 21. But I think the advice that I would give is to be authentic and to be confident in your authenticity. So like two examples come to mind. One is the first time I was meeting an elected official, like one-on-one. I was meeting Ron Nuremberg and I remember texting Chris or talking to Chris and saying, like, oh my God, what do I wear to this thing? I want to talk about CPS energy rates. And Chris responded and was like, Hannah, you're firstly really overthinking this because you're asking me. And secondly, like you're a college student who wants to talk about CPS energy rates, dressed like you are a college student. Like you don't need to show up in a suit to have this conversation, especially with your city councilman who already knows you. And so that was really helpful, sort of for the way I contextualize the work that I do, how I present myself, where I show up, the mood that I'm in, the way I'm communicating. And the second experience for that is like to be confident while you're being authentic in sort of owning the space that you're in. So like we've already had two people speak about like life challenges that they've had here. One of the many starts that I had in politics was moving away from the Democratic Party, which I did after I was raped my freshman year of college. And for like probably two years I didn't really talk to people about that. I certainly wouldn't do it in this sort of a setting. But it was a realization for me that if I show up as my authentic self, right, which is a survivor of sexual assault, then those of you who are in the audience who have experienced that will see yourself represented on this panel, right? And that's important because when I went through that I didn't see a single person that I could look to in my career field who had my life experience. So I would really urge you to be authentic and to do it with confidence, as long as you're in a space, of course, but that's safe for you to do. Yeah, and I think those are two of the lessons I've learned, certainly. Okay, so I have questions all day but I guess there's probably some here in the audience. He's got one over here. Is that Jonathan's on the camera inside? Okay. I like the work. I know I'm here. So this question is kind of directed toward the subject. With regards to the last panel that was up here as well, what did you say the significance of law school has been for you and your career? It's funny because usually when I talk about law school I talk about my student loan payments, which are due tomorrow, I think. So I'll have to get it on the bank with that. No, it teaches you how to think differently. It definitely does, almost to a detriment in maybe interpersonal relationships or in political conversations. But if it's something that you're really interested in doing I would encourage you to explore it but just be very cognizant of the cost. That's pretty much what I'd tell you. I do think differently, but it's really expensive. You would change that you've been through so far because you get to where you are over the years. I think Hannah can start with that one. I knew you were going to do that. I actually wouldn't change anything. I think a lot of people say that because they believe that everything happens for a reason. I don't. I'm not like a particularly religious or spiritual person. I think sometimes things just happen, right? And that's like an easier concept for me to reconcile with and to live with. I also think that everything you do builds on other things in your life. And so if I were to change anything that I had done up until here I wouldn't be here in my mind. So mistakes that I've made, experiences that I've had that are negative those shaped me just as much as the positive ones. I think, you know, I would have liked to be, I guess, more confident in who I am when I was younger. I think it took me a really long time to get comfortable with myself. But yeah, I mean, I really wouldn't change much of anything that I've done. So I'll go on a personal note less than a political note, but I should mention that one of the lessons I've learned as I'd be effective professionally, it's better to have your personal stuff kind of handled, right? So I spent a lot of years thinking what I needed out of life is what people told me I should need out of life, which is a house and a white picket fence and a two-car garage and all these things. And I woke up at the age of 29 and had all those things and I was miserable. And that was making me less effective at my job and making me a less effective political figure. I feel like I've made some giant steps forward in reassessing what matters to me. That all that being said, you're going to be most effective professionally if you're being true to yourself and your personal life. It's almost trite to say to dine-own self be true, right? We've all read our Shakespeare, but I think you had a point. I'd like to add on to that. I'm just honing on that again. Really, when I'm the most successful, I found my career has been, or career, I feel like I'm 26. I've only started, but so far what I've been in life, that the times that I'm most successful with regards to its money orbits, media attention or whatever, it's always when I'm being my authentic self. So like I said, I'm in the Republican Party and I'm very active, but I'm also a different looking Republican black woman. I'm unique in the Republican Party right now. So I also have different ideas and different views. For example, I focus a lot on criminal justice reform because my father was in prison for a drug crime. So that kind of puts me in more of the liberty camp. Some Republicans don't like that, but I'm going to talk about it and I think it's a conservative issue and something that we have to talk about in the national stage. That's why it's important to hone in on your uniqueness because in the end, the people who are successful in this world, the Mark Zuckerbergs and whatever, they weren't doing the same thing everyone else was doing. They had something unique about them and they shared it to the world and the world took it and that's what makes them successful. So I just want to talk about that. And I think the caveat to that is you learn what your unique self is by being around people who are very different from you. You can only really know how you feel about something until you're forced into conversation with a friend and you're like, well, I think this. And then they say, well, wouldn't you say this is true? And then you have to completely reconfigure what you believe in and you can't know yourself until you've been put in a situation where you have to put your words to actions. You can say, I'm a really honest person and then you get put in a situation where you see somebody you made fun of or you see someone advocating something you don't believe in and then you don't speak up or you're not willing to put yourself out there to people who could reject that. So you need to surround yourself with people who are going to challenge you and who are different from you. And that I think is something I do regret. I think especially right now in the 2016 cycle there's so much going on and it's really challenging how I feel about America and what Americans feel. I think a lot of you are feeling this too where who are we right now? And so I wish that I had interacted with people who are so extremely different than me that I could grasp what that is. So I could have a better understanding and then I could move forward knowing what was best to do next. So I would definitely surround yourself with people who are different from you and who can challenge you. I was thinking back on that real quick. My views on gender equality issues have been fundamentally changed by a lot of conversations with Hannah Beck about it. So I would double down on what you just said because I know that I've experienced the most growth in the way I view the world when I'm talking to people who I disagree with and a lot of times they'll put me right around. 25, 28 changes over time and you have to not latch on to those ideas because you said them five years ago and you want to not contradict yourself. Jump in, be different, change yourself. Rather be right than consistent. Exactly. Okay, let's see Brandon and Wes. Great, awesome. Hey, thanks guys for being on this panel. So I think you guys are all pretty much millennials if I'm not mistaken. I think most of the people in the crowd on the younger side, I'm on the older side of that, I was wondering what you could say is one positive thing about our generation that is our biggest asset that'll help us politically and what's one of the baggage things that we have that we just need to get over? I was wondering if you guys could elaborate, anyone? I told today a better question than I did. I really don't know how to begin with what is our biggest asset. I mean obviously it's the internet and social media which is like, but the thing is just like, I worry about millennials because and I am one. So I'm like, I'm different but I'm not. So the thing about millennials as we are is that we somehow think we're smarter than other generations but without having anything to back it up and so because we have social media and there are those who are very smart on social media presenting great views but then you have those who aren't willing to like dig into that and then immediately accept that and throw it down in everyone else's face but there's nothing substantial behind it and there's nothing informative there's no critical thinking in social media and we're so sucked into like I just saw that, that's totally true I believe that now but you have to be willing to analyze and I think there's a loss of analytical thinking with the social media age and an immediate acceptance of things that we see all the time because it's really easy to shut out everything you disagree with when it comes to social media and I think that's something we are willing to overcome so that's probably the positive of millennials is we're willing to change our minds but it's so overwhelmingly hard to get us to have the information that we need to change our minds and it's really hard to vocalize that we changed our minds and on a positive part of that we were saying the first part positive I think and with that we are also doers like we're the people that we're the fixers we're the activists they talk about all the social entrepreneurship we're the generation that has to if we're going to have a business degree we want to know or we're going to a business field we want to know how that's going to impact such and such we're issue based we're advocates so I would say I'm a doer just naturally and so I love that I love that millennials are these doers and they want to change the world and I think we're still trying to figure out how we do that and pay off our loans so when we find that out I'm sure one of you guys will and then you'll make lots of money because we're starting to figure that out but we are doers and that's a big positive and I love to focus on that there's so much negativity with the millennial generation and if you're just a psychologist you just be like okay isn't it really helpful to constantly bash a generation to say that you guys are lazy you're not doing what you're supposed to do you know you guys think you're just going to come out of college and have this such and such and such I don't think that's positive and I don't think it helps us and I think we kind of get sucked into that as well as millennials thinking that they're right but I want to be that positive person to say every generation has their baggage and has their issues but we need to figure out how we use that unique you know bad circumstance and then use it for the common good in the end so that's probably not a solution but that's something for up to you guys to solve or up to all of us to solve in the end I do so my girlfriend likes to say I'm an analog guy in a digital world so I do not claim to be a millennial even though I'm 29 years old what I will say is that in my own observation I've had the opportunity to teach at the College of Public Policy here at UTSA the last two years and what I have found the greatest weakness for the millennial generation is writing skills my students who are older than me who are baby boomer generation generation X students are far better writers than the millennial generation students are and I think that's a function of not reading as much maybe reading tweets instead of Dickens novels and Dickens novels are incredibly boring but there's a lot of critical thinking that you learn when you're reading a novel like that so I would say that really if you want to have a career in any field doing anything focus on your writing skills and I'll jump into I think the best thing about millennials the thing that inspires me at least is like how passionate we are and you know I work for an organization that's all about civic engagement MOVE stands for Mobilized Organized Vote and Empower and so I hear all the time especially from older people young people don't vote young people don't care young people don't turn out and some of those things are true like young people don't vote at super high numbers but we do care and you can see this sort of change in the way that our parents engage in the way that we do so we tweet stuff we share things on Facebook we sign petitions online we're engaged in class discussions we're more likely to protest than our parents were evidently you know there are things that we are incredibly passionate about and we show up for those things it's a funny question because I spend so much of my time working defending millennials so coming at this from the perspective of where are we doing things wrong is an entirely new question to me but I think the thing that I've observed is like a lack of willingness or desire to engage in conversations that add context to our views and I think that probably is related to like the fact that we grew up with technology I'm 23 so I don't consider myself to be you know the most high tech part of the millennials or the most low tech like I got an email address when I was 6 why I don't know but you know I didn't have an iPad when I was 6 right so like I'm kind of in that softer spot of the kids who were born in the early 90s but I think that ultimately what happens is that we're really set in our views and we don't look for context so like it took me until I was 18 to realize how incredibly prevalent racism still is because I'm white right like I didn't have experiences with racism until much further on and even identifying as a progressive person I don't think that I knew that context or those stories because I was pretty comfortable in the bubble that I was in and so I think the thing that I see with a lot of millennials is that when we're talking about racism or sexism or homophobia or whatever it is when we disagree with people I don't think we all can take that step back sometimes and look for that greater context because instead we're kind of forcing things into sound bites which I think we do pretty frequently I guess so first of all like I said millennials aren't definitely the smartest generation yet but this kind of question goes sort of with critical viewpoints of a lot of these millennials that we were saying is a negative deal by looking at just one little fact and believing it right away but it comes down to their perspective bias and the party's view of what they want to represent and be about but obviously everybody's going to die eventually and the younger people are going to start to take control and being that you guys have worked with several other parties what kind of issues and challenges you guys see in the future as far as moving that party's whole entire perspective and shifting it like you're with the Republican Party and both sides contradict themselves all the time like how do you guys feel how do you guys combat those opposing viewpoints to your own but you're still representing that party what do you do to change it how does that process look like where do things go that was a lot of questions I feel like that's my mission right now so I'm just like oh yeah so I actually like some context I actually used to identify as a Democrat I grew up in a Democrat household anyways they're all still Democrats yes it is very interesting at the dinner table still today as a Republican now but I do kind of feel like I have because I had the more liberal mindset for a while and so I realized that I am a conservative I kind of have both sides and so my mission and passion is to add diversity and diversity of thought into the Republican Party and that's why I started in a local as a precinct chair and that is what I'm still trying to go towards we have these issues and I think that's kind of why I gravitated towards the more libertarian liberty side because they're kind of in this middle context with the younger what I reverse thinking side of the Republican Party right now that we wish to move into the mainstream but looking at that is really focusing on what's wrong with the party how can we be critical of the party but how can we use that criticism to not you know change the party in a way that would be detrimental to it and so for me I think it's you know cloning in on my uniqueness of my story of criminal justice reform and how that should be a conservative issue or really it shouldn't be a Democrat or a Republican issue it should be an issue that really come together on and stop using politics on I'm so sick of it and then there's different things I mean why should it be that we have to say that we respect police on one side and then we don't respect it's not that at all but we make it into this party issue so I think one person said it as that CPAC just yesterday and one person a millennial is saying that no party owns us no party owns us we have issues that we're fired up about whether that's a Republican issue or a Democrat issue it doesn't matter it's an issue that we want to see solved and be fixed whatever party takes advantage of that more power to them so I'll jump in because you know as the executive director for Move a lot of my time is spent fundraising and this is a question that a lot of people ask me especially before they want to give there's a question of like where are millennials going into what end basically so firstly 50% of millennials don't identify with a political party I don't identify with a political party I think you know there's this really interesting space for millennials where exactly as you said we care so much about certain issues and we're really passionate about them but we're not seeing a lot of movement and I think that's something that turns a lot of folks off to voting is I mean I could ask you right now like how many people here raise your hand if you think Washington DC is bought out by big money interests and like you can't really have an impact there like you guys get where I'm going right like the presidency the amount of money going into it alone isolates us from political parties and so I think there's a really interesting space for organizations like move to come in as a nonpartisan organization and do voter engagement work I also think you know that it's noteworthy and I was having this conversation with my friend pretty recently that like we think of the party as an establishment as a machine when in actuality it's a group of people and I was like wrestling with this because as I'm making decisions about my career and my life and where I'm going to be after move I started thinking like could I work for the party knowing that I disagree with it am I comfortable with that do all of the people who work for the party completely agree with the policies do they all actually support all of the candidates down the ballot right and I think that there's got to be this understanding that like a democratic party like the Texas Democratic Party is run out of a small office in Austin people go there daily and they're trying to make the world better right I don't know about the Texas Republican Party that much but I imagine it's a similar situation not all Republicans agree on all Republican issues not all Democrats agree on Democratic issues so I really think millennials have an interesting space to take up there that you know locally could lead to like more third party candidates non-partisan candidates getting elected nationally I think it's going to be a while before that's a larger impact yeah I can add something on that one thing I love about working at City Hall is it's non-partisan so we are 11 people 10 council members and the mayor so if we want to do something in a disarrayed office we have to count to six so who's going to be on our side right in Congress it's really hard because it's a partisan deal we have 197 people with you and 250 against you no matter what and on ours we can be total enemies with somebody on one issue and total allies with them on another issue and it's really easy to do that there are no permanent allies there are no permanent enemies by allies I mean political allies political enemies so it's all about relationships Kathy Garcia who spoke from CPS Energy earlier talked about substance plus relationships and I couldn't have thought it I couldn't have thought about it better myself because you need to have relationships with people you also need to be seen as substantive second point a lot of people are caring a lot right now about the presidential election I'm one of them but how many people here have thought about how your community is going to have water when you're 50 years old right yeah not many but the last two years working on that is a primary issue and that's going to impact 2 million people it's a big deal so I would say that you have on the margin a huge impact you can make in your local community by getting involved with your local government and especially because it's a non-partisan framed and like for me physical issues are so important to me but if you just focus on their presidency and even though I'm a Republican right now I don't even know if they're going to deal with that but at least you can deal with the local government issue I just got appointed on to the capital improvements board so I actually get to make a difference with fiscal issues in my town, in my city and I think that's what we think we're so ambitious and we really want to think about the national government but local government is really where you can make an impact now and you can see that now and so I really I'm getting involved locally because I want to see that difference and I really would ask you guys to get involved to get on those boards to become a precinct chair for your Republican or Democratic party or whatever party it may be because that's where you get to make an actual impact and see it actually impact it now as someone who's super partisan to be like a national delegate I caution you, I feel like Milan's very worried about labels and once you've labeled yourself as a Democrat or you've labeled yourself as a Republican you have to you're now the advocate, you're the delegate and when someone asks you what your party is and you say you're a Republican, you're like well I have to be, explain all the positions you are allowed to disagree with the point of a party and you can be that change in that party, you don't have to run away from the Democratic party because there's an aspect of it you don't like because the party is parties are trying to reflect voters if you feel that people there's a lot of people who feel a certain way you can be that change in a party, you can make a change so don't be afraid to be partisan because I mean the American system is set to be a two party system but we can make changes but the rules of the game are pretty two party so if you want to change the party don't be afraid to like go in and make the change because we can run away from the parties but it's a much higher uphill battle. Hi guys, I have a question how can we get, how can we work with technology going back to what we're talking about with millennials and technology, how can we work with technology to get young people to think more objectively and more in context about policies and candidates. Well, I'll start. I think there's a lot of space to improve the way that politics interacts with technology so I was just explaining this to somebody the other day but if you all get a text on your phone from like 5.7-268 what's the first thought that you get? It's spam right? So move is piloting a text opt-in system for voters in San Antonio people who have pledged to vote with us it's an opt-in because legally we can't text you if you don't check the box because you could have messaging rates but one of the things we're testing is like do you respond higher if it starts with a 2-1-0 area code or a 5-1-2 area code. My bet is yes right? We're doing a voter guide I mean we did for 2014-2015 as well making things mobile friendly so not just having the website which you can access on your cell phone but actually making it easy to navigate on your cell phone with a mobile version is really important and then frankly I mean this is maybe a cop-out answer but it's the thing I see most often I think we need to let millennials and tech and voting people come together and figure it out because the thing that is most frustrating to me and I say this with no disrespect to anybody over the age of 65 but I walk into a room a lot and people say you guys aren't voting that's it right? Sometimes there's a question of like how can we help get more people to vote what do you think you know whatever and often times when I answer I try that like you're wrong at which point it's really difficult for me to have a productive strategic conversation with people so I think what we need to do to help young people you know really utilize technology for civic engagement is like make it a priority which means that you need to have funders and donors who will give scholarships or grants to people who are doing research on this and testing it and giving people the space to figure out what works best and that's going to be different in different communities I don't think there's necessarily a national answer but like what's the best way to engage with people in San Antonio how is that different from people in other parts of Texas that's probably different from Montana which is different from New York I think we need to make it a priority fund it and give folks a space to figure out the answers and that's kind of my best response to it we're really poised to help politicians in the public sector because they are truly thirsty for people who understand technology, who understand social media and there's two tracks for that they need people who can do the analytics of campaigns people who can take data from huge databases like NPG Van for Democrats and understand that if you knock on someone's door there's a 6% chance of them coming out to the polls versus if you leave just a door knocker that's 2% people need that information and that's critical for campaigns in this era and you can go in that field and make bank or people also need older politicians from every level local all the way to present they need people who understand the social media field and they are hiring they are looking for people who can go in write a pithy tweet that's connected to some you know this event and a picture they need that and so that's where millennials come in because we can provide that and it can expand we're coming up with different apps there's different things that are civically engaged we can create that and people want it one of the things I'll just jump in with I work friend on partisan groups so while I have a lot of conversations about politics I probably won't tell you who I voted for but one of the things that I thought Bernie Sanders did that was so cool and I'm sure Maya agrees with me on this actually is like outsourcing a lot of coding and tech and letting the campaigns in the grassroots level work with like the programs that their volunteers came up with like I don't know if you read about somebody created Airbnb for Bernie or whatever so Bernie supporters had an app where like during major primaries you jump on and go stay with a supporter they had all of these different coders basically it's not endorsed by the campaign but they're allowing people to put this technology on the marketplace which I think is really cool because it gives everybody access to it so like I'm certain that by the time Hillary is working towards November a couple months out from that she's going to be using similar technology and it's really cool to see that folks to volunteer and put that out there and campaigns are like uplifting that and utilizing that in the way that they should and that's why it's important we were talking about not sticking to just one party or whatever and being partisan like I mean does that Airbnb Bernie thing I'm like oh my gosh why aren't we using that you should do that yeah but then I hear from other Democrats you're like you know in the public inside you have to really do well with fundraising really well we're going to do that there are a lot of people who are still stuck in their ways I told you I was just at CPAC and I was just like I guess I was a social media expert because I was just like you know what yes black guys don't care but you didn't really like Occupy Wall Street or you didn't like Black Lives Matter or whatever okay it's not about the policy issue right there they're successful because we're talking about it right now and they did not understand that and so I was able to get that and tell them hey you guys they always just basically don't agree on the policy side of it doesn't mean that it's not right or successful in another way and so the smart people are going to remember are going to know that they're going to identify that but they're also going to speak up and use it to the advantage of their party or whatever their side or issue is to help their side as well we've got one thing that I can tell to the university my question is what is your specific that you feel have made you successful I'm trying to figure that out still I'll be totally honest I have a I guess an interesting perspective on that as an executive director which means that I do a lot of different pieces of our work so yes I do the fundraising I do the administrative I do the operations I do strategic planning sometimes I work with our interns and fellows shout out to Raven and Rebecca you know I do some voter registration rarely but it happens I manage our board of directors I have one of those jobs where I just kind of pick up all the odds and ends I think the most important thing throughout all of that has been learning how to communicate effectively and so some of this goes into this like be your authentic self message that I think everybody is echoing on this panel but the other lesson that I'm really fond of sharing is from the management center which is a really great resource if you're a manager and you're looking for tools and resources but they have this phrase which is make the implicit explicit I don't know if they created it but I'll say that they did and that's the thing that I've learned I think in communication that's helped me most you know in fundraising that means that I'm going to do a hard ask which means instead of saying like hey can you donate it's can you donate $1,000 to sponsor this event I'm going to be specific when I'm managing people you know instead of saying to Raven hey can you prepare a debrief for me on this program I'm going to say like hey Raven by tomorrow at 5pm I need a debrief on our letterhead that outlines exactly what we did you know in the phone bank on this date it should be one page Helvetica new comma light comma 12 point font because that's how I want everything to look you know there's a lot of different spaces for it but ultimately I think learning how to communicate through making my implicit assumptions explicit is probably the best skill that I've learned I think for me it would definitely have to be more of that I'm more diplomatic in my nature like I said before I'm a Southwest Director for students that people carry on campus and that is a heated issue of course that's probably already keeping up with that now and I've had people tell me that you know you're the first pro-gun rights advocate that didn't scream at me after I had any type of descent toward what you're just saying and I hear that a lot and it's kind of sad you know and I realize quickly that and people on the both sides have told me that I'm more diplomatic I'm more tactful and so I realize that skill set is just being civil you know in a conversation and maybe it's because you know I have I come from a Democrat family and I surround myself with people who think differently than me and so I have that practice that training ground which I think more people need to have because I think a lot of people do not know how to have a conversation without you know hurting people or calling people's hands bigger than the other Trump so I think it's something that we have to learn but it's something that in the end it's just be a decent human being and own that and be okay with that because sometimes it's not popular but it's what we need to have actual engagement in this in this country for what it's worth my friend just started a Donald Trump has tiny hands pack and you can find that pack on Twitter and Facebook as a double major in government and communications so my communication classes filled with women my government classes filled with men and so when I go out into you know politically engaged arenas it's very male focused and so I think one of my skills is and I think this is harder for women to to bring but they don't have it and I think some men as well is to be a leader and to step into a leadership role like if it's your role do it and don't be afraid to tell someone this is your job and then follow up and say did you do that like if you're someone who's in a leadership position or if you're in a president of our organization or someone's giving you a task never be afraid to do your best push back and ask for excellence and I think if you are willing to own your own leadership skills other people will see it and other people will accept it and maybe there are times when you will be in a situation where someone's like go get the coffee you are in a place where you can say no actually my role here is not to do that I'm gonna go do policy work so I think you need to be aware of your skills and willing to push those skills forward and that's really hard to know what you can bring to the table and being self aware to know that you're right now in a place that's needed and that you can say I'm here and this is my voice so when I was senior in college I delivered pieces for Papa John I had this old car that would screech everywhere I went driving around Lubbock delivering pieces and when I did that I listened to podcasts about all sorts of different subjects, economics, law, policy communications you name it and I just kept doing that so if you get in my car right now there will be a podcast about something so that's curiosity which allows you to think about issues or challenges in the workplace on multiple different planes so you think about it for me a legal plane, a policy plane, a PR plane and it allows you to approach challenges from several different points of view so while I am a specialist, I'm a lawyer that's my training, I'm also a generalist in the things that I'm interested in which I believe makes me more effective so I want to first stop thanks Kamel here because she did an amazing job I think she would agree and then I think we're the last panel today is that accurate so I also want to do a very quick thank you to the Strauss Institute for coming down today to do this to Drew to Emily who have given up their day and Dean Syme and the College of Public Policy if you know bureaucracy you know that it takes a massive army to get something like this done so thank you Dean Syme for putting this on thank you so much Dr. Dixon, thank you panelists we have just some quick wrap up things and then we're going to get you guys out of here so as you know you did a pre-test whenever you signed up and you registered this test that will help us understand how effective today's conference was for you and what parts you liked best and where we can make changes for future conferences this will take like five minutes so we just need everybody to kind of quickly fill it out you can drop it off here at the front whenever you're done we'll sort of wrap up and give you a little bit more information about the networking event so we're going to give you about five minutes to fill this out if you need a pin, raise your hand cool Annette Strauss pins around to you okay? Thanks so much guys, we're going to get you out of here pretty quick so Madison at the door Madison's waving, she's going to take your program evaluations when you're done you can have the pin, please take extras take buttons if you like as well we've got plenty of those so when you leave please give your program evaluation to Madison we thank you so much for taking the extra time to do that it really does help our programs a lot if you have any trash near your near your chair if you'll pick that up, throw that in the trash can on your way out we have extra lunches so if you're not going to join us for the networking event or you're heading back to Austin or college station please take a box lunch on your way out we definitely do not want to throw those away in the trash can so finally we want to just say can I see a show of hands if you would like to go to the networking event later today we're going to get appetizers at Pico de Gallo so let's see we've got, come on you know, you want to come okay, so we're going to be we're going to walk from here over to Pico de Gallo in the next couple minutes so just follow us over or we'll meet you over there so finally, we wanted to say thank you so much especially to the Hat and Summoners Foundation who has helped fund New Politics Forum for the last you know, last years and especially as a huge funder for this for careers in politics I want to thank the Annette Strauss Institute staff specifically Susan, Emily and Madison who came down from Austin to help with this event and UTSA Dean Sainz, thank you so much Nowcast, thank you so much for being here and live streaming for us and archiving and then all of our speakers and moderators who are here today and most of all, thank you so much for spending a Saturday afternoon with us and thank you for spending the time to care about civic engagement and care about good government and care about self-governance and so we really hope that you take what you learned today and get out there and change the world so thank you so much and see you at the next San Antonio event