 Sarah Solon
"What I read about in the paper is what I want to talk about at dinner with my friends, it’s what occupies my thoughts when I’m showering or riding the subway."
How do you lead a political life?
I spend my days working for a public policy think tank, and I really like to read the paper and debate politics and policy with my friends. My thoughts are also pretty consumed with feminism, and I think that the activist component of feminist thought drives a lot of my interest in politics.
When did you start caring about politics?
I think that my political life began when I started to listen to NPR during my 25 minute drives to and from high school. I remember becoming much more opinionated, passionate, and argumentative during this time, once I started to be up-to-date on current events and politics. I think that being informed really woke me up, and pushed me to make connections between what I was learning in school and events around the world, and to begin to see the ways I interacted with others in terms of their larger political context.
What steps did you take to get to where you are?
One of the accomplishments I am most grateful for began with creating a major in Women and Public Policy at Colorado College, for which I wrote a senior thesis on gendered recruitment and training tactics, as well as sexual assault policy and sex-specific combat assignments in the United States military. During my time in Colorado Springs, I also interned at Planned Parenthood, working in the Public Affairs division. My internship was specifically focused on ousting incumbent members of the local school board who wanted to continue damaging policies of abstinence-only education in schools and who sanctioned kicked a student-run Gay-Straight Alliance out of a local high school. I served as the President of Publications at Colorado College, and worked as a contributing editor at the CiPher, a monthly news and arts magazine for which I wrote articles about politics and local policies affecting women. And in the final months of college, I moved across the country to New York City in order to intern at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. As an intern at DMI, I was exposed to the scope of domestic public policy and progressive economic analyses of it by an office comprised primarily of women 30 and under. I knew it was where I wanted to gain my first professional experience post-college, and in my staff position since the beginning of the summer, I have tried to learn a lot from my co-workers and from a think tank dedicated to changing public policy by inserting too-often underrepresented and perhaps undervalued voices into public policy debate.
How do you think politics affects your daily life?
I think politics, widely defined, provides fodder for conversation. What I read about in the paper or in blogs during the day is what I want to talk about at dinner with my friends, it’s what occupies my thoughts when I’m showering or riding the subway, it’s what riles me and makes me want to go to work in the morning. I although think politics has the potential to bring needed policy change, and working to suggest policy that can effectively address economic inequality gives meaning to my professional life.
Why is it important to lead a political life?
This is a tough question. In some ways, I’m not sure that it is. What is important is having access relative financial stability, housing, food, time with your family and friends, a career that gives you some satisfaction, and the ability to give to and interact with other people. I guess that working in politics or policy just gives me those things, and makes me feel, maybe just abstractly, that I am working to make those things available for others.
What advice do you have for people who want to get involved?
What has made me feel like I have the greatest handle on a given topic – and thus the most confidence in my ability to weigh in on it – has been doing my own research. Getting good at accessing information for yourself makes you a valuable resource for others as well as gives solidity to your unique analyses and takes on different policy and political trends.
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
If it were a sort of instantaneous, top-down, almost magician-like change, I would snap my fingers and suddenly women would have equal representation in all sorts of high-level decision-making positions. If I could make a more systematic and lasting change, I would create the infrastructure to topple the archaic old boys clubs that rule high level decision making in politics, policy, journalism and business. I would do this by increasing funding for women’s groups, appointing women to direct editorial pages, giving more scholarships to women pursuing higher education, and electing a congress committed to a whole slew of policy improvements, ranging from affordable health insurance to stronger public education.
Age: 21
University: Colorado College
Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Occupation: Policy and Communications Associate, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
First thing you do when you wake up: Crave juice.
Favorite Musical Artist: Blondie, Joni Mitchell
Role Model: Barbara Ehrenreich
Dream Job: Columnist, or Researcher and Writer for an organization focused on the intersection of public policy and the plight of women.
Favorite Quote:
“Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee's life of the poet. She died young —alas, she never wrote a word. … Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross-roads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here to-night, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh.” –Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
“Hope is an unruly emotion.” - Gloria Steinem |
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