In my experiences chatting with prospective students, I often get asked what the political climate is like on campus. Coming to Northwestern — and the college process as a whole — I knew I wanted to be on a campus that had a solid political engagement climate. In high school, I had a lot of experiences with political efforts and developed a strong interest in the area. I attended a Chicago Public School where most people shared my same political ideology, but I wanted a change from this environment and wanted exposure to new viewpoints during college. I needed to be informed of all different viewpoints if I wished to enter the world of politics, even if I did necessarily not agree with them. This brought me to Northwestern; it was such an incredible fit to accomplish my goal because of the wide spectrum of views I found on this campus.

My first quarter at Northwestern backs this up; I suddenly found myself in a place where everyone appeared to come from similar backgrounds, but all had different views on topics. In one of my policy classes, we would passionately engage in political debates, but what really stood out to me was how we each dialogued with one another. We all clearly cared about the subject, but no one ever made the debate personal by attacking each other’s character or being rude. We didn’t always agree with one another, nobody tried to force their views onto the other. This freedom of thought and autonomy to explore your views was something beyond what I had experienced in high school. Overall, at Northwestern, I feel like even if someone shared different views from me, we all carried on with the importance of being kind and respectful to one another.

Coming to Northwestern has opened up so many opportunities on what I can do politically here. From organizations like College Democrats, College Republicans and even some third-party clubs, Northwestern has a place for every single person who wishes to be politically engaged in a respectful and appropriate way. Even if you simply wish to debate current political issues, there is a place for everyone. Political Union, for example, allows for so many students on campus to hear debates on current issues from so many different viewpoints. With the 2020 Presidential Election around the corner, many students have even begun to organize on campus for many candidates both at the presidential level (like the prior #NUforWarren) to even local based races across the country. As someone who drives on being involved, I need a place where I could be able to engage with different campaigns as I wished and Northwestern was the best fit for that. Apart from discussing politics, campaigning in politics, and debates, Northwestern hosts so many different speakers year round that are all leaders in their own academic fields. A while back, I heard Leader Stacey Abrams speak (for free!), something that not every college student could say they did! Given the diverse mindsets in the student body, the list of speakers every year come from all different ranges of ideologies and career fields.

In my opinion, politics don’t have to necessarily cause headaches or be negative. Northwestern offers so many opportunities that push students to be engaged in their own minds beyond the classroom. I am beyond glad that I chose to attend Northwestern because it has the political climate I craved since high school. Regardless of what you may think politically, all Northwestern asks is you respect each other and be a leader in and out of the class.