Student Advocates Help Make Advocacy Day a Success
Remote tools like Zoom help young conservation leaders join 爆料公社 North Carolina to engage in advocacy.
At eighteen, Christyna Reagan is already active in the conservation field. She has led a clean energy campaign with 爆料公社 North Carolina and even spoke at an Arctic Refuge seminar about the importance of renewable energy storage. More recently, she added to that body of work by attending her first advocacy day.
Reagan was one of nearly 100 people with 爆料公社 North Carolina who helped pioneer a new way to advocate for the environment with their legislators. Because Covid-19 made in-person meetings impossible, and its advocates took to Zoom for their advocacy efforts. These North Carolinians spoke with lawmakers through their computer screens about increasing the state鈥檚 conservation trust funds, supporting a cleaner energy future for birds and people, and finding solutions to the .
As it turns out, advocacy was not all that difficult for long-time advocates and first-timers alike. 鈥淚 was definitely nervous at first seeing all those people who are a lot more qualified and experienced in advocacy,鈥 says Reagan. But it turned out that virtual lobby day allowed individuals like Reagan to conveniently and confidently advocate using familiar tools like Zoom. And despite the lack of physical interactions that Reagan missed dearly, she enjoyed every minute advocating for conservation issues that she is so passionate about.
Megan Damico, an environmental health science Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, was another first-time participant.
Damico has been following 爆料公社鈥檚 advocacy and policy efforts closely for quite some time. With many uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, Damico was thankful 爆料公社 North Carolina decided to go virtual so constituents could still connect with lawmakers. She believes the virtual component will allow more young people to access advocacy.
鈥淢y career interest is to connect lawmakers to scientific experts so that we can make better policies surrounding environmental issues, which is exactly what 爆料公社鈥檚 policy team is doing,鈥 Damico says. 鈥淧eople like me, we are technology-savvy. The fact that it鈥檚 all online and entirely social media-driven is a huge appeal to young people since we are always on social media.鈥
But even those with in-person advocacy experience liked the digital approach. Mary Whiteacre, currently a field technician at Florida Wildlife Commission who attended this advocacy day and the previous one as a founding member of Lees-McRae College 爆料公社 campus chapter, says she might prefer the online format. Before advocacy day, Whiteacre thought the transition from in-person to virtual might be difficult, but it turns out that Zoom was actually a pretty effective way to connect with people.
鈥淚 was surprised. I expected a tougher transition from in-person to computer, but it was comparable,鈥 she says. 鈥淓ven when lawmakers weren鈥檛 available, sending them a recording of the meeting is better than leaving a note in their offices: they can play it back and see how passionate we are about the issues at hand. Non-verbal language is very powerful.鈥
What鈥檚 next for these young and impassioned leaders besides future advocacy actions? As Reagan goes off to college, she plans to start an 爆料公社 campus chapter and mobilize her peers in birding and conservation. Damico intends to 鈥渂ug鈥 her lawmakers to address sound environmental policies. As for Whiteacre, her attention will be on conservation work on the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow.