Four St. Thomas students were responsible for endorsing candidates, passing resolutions and advancing legislation this election season after volunteering at the precinct caucuses to become delegates for the Senate district 64 DFL convention on April 3.

The four students delegates are Caitlin Davis, Molly McKone, Michael Gleason and Matthew Jadlowski. Gleason, a sophomore and student delegate, said students often don’t know what delegates are, or that they can participate in the process.

“The ‘D’ word is kind of scary. (You) hear it in the media all the time, you’re like, ‘What is a delegate?’” Gleason said. “I don’t think many people know that you can just become a delegate. It’s like something that’s just for party elites, but party elites are really just people who show up and participate.”

A delegate, someone who is chosen or willing to represent the values of the community, is selected at the precinct causes if the individual has volunteered. If more people than the necessary amount volunteer, delegate participants must make a case as to why their fellow caucus-goers should vote for them. From there, delegate positions become more competitive, advancing to the state and national conventions.

The four students are not sure whether they hope to proceed to the next convention.

Senate district 64 DFL treasurer Eric Celeste said some students get involved because of their curiosity in the political process.

“It’s very easy to get an idea of how a party process works,” Celeste said. “Just knowing how people organize…being involved in things like making rules for a convention or figuring out how credentials work and how you authenticate people as valid participants in a convention.”

While conventions are open to everyone of voting age, Celeste said that though young delegates are extremely important, it can be difficult for college students to get involved because of the two-year convention cycle.

“There is only so much you get a chance to do before you’re on again and out in the world,” Celeste said. “It’s very important for students to have a voice, to tell us what they care about, to fight for what they care about within the party too, to make the party better and stronger.”

Junior and delegate Matthew Jadlowski, along with Gleason, became aware of the process once Celeste spoke at a College Democrats meeting on campus. Jadlowski said his experience as a delegate has helped him further understand the process.

“Now that I know how it works, it’s like I kind of get it, but it’s still kind of confusing,” Jadlowski said. “I think it also helps clarify how it works nationally as well as in other states… It further understands how people are elected and how you can get involved and how issues are brought to legislatures.”

Aside from the common ads and slogans that encourage people to vote, Jadlowski said students should be more involved, as they play a much more important role than many know when it comes to pushing important legislation to the state level and endorsing resolutions that the Minnesota DFL should support.

“It’s something that interests me, and just having this social awareness or social activism is just an important thing for me,” Jadlowski said. “You can actually make a change, even if it’s at the local level; you can have a voice and contribute to what your party is or senate district wants to advance for legislation.”

Gleason said the sense of community is very important and that everyone has the same goal: Talk and vote on issues that matter to the community and neighborhoods and push important legislation to the state level.

“You kind of imagine that all these … conventions, and these delegates are people in smoky back rooms trying to run the country for their own means,” Gleason said. “Seeing that it’s really just people like me and like my parents and like my professors that are participating in this and trying to shape how their party and therefore how the country operates.”

Noura Elmanssy can be reached at elma7206@stthomas.edu.