Donna Ruiz, the daughter of immigrant parents who were able to afford necessary medical treatment thanks to Minnesota Care, was one of the nearly 100 young adults who attended the Day at the Capitol on April 11.
Ruiz is a student at the Dougherty Family College, a two-year college located within the University of St. Thomas that is specially designed for students aspiring for a four-year degree.
“Our reason why we came is that we care about Minnesota Care,” Ruiz said, “because our parents are immigrants. So they don’t have no type of support with any health insurance.”
St. Thomas represented over a quarter of all those attending, boasting 27 students in total.
Students for Justice and Peace is a club devoted to “peace, equality, and recognition of human dignity,” according to the club’s TommieLink page. It organized St. Thomas students and coordinated with the Young Adult Coalition to create this opportunity for young people to use their voices.
“The House and Senate had just come off their spring break,” Morgan Whiting, a student coordinator for Students for Justice and Peace, said, “so we wanted to make ourselves known that young people are a group of constituents that our senators and representatives should be worried about.”
YAC organized the logistics at the capitol for the second year in a row and coordinated with Students for Justice and Peace to gather student interest and participation.
Katherine Ichinose is an Associate Organizer at ISAIAH, the organization that created the YAC, wrote to TommieMedia that the YAC is a “political home for students, renters, and young people across the state to build power and win the future that we deserve.”
Ichinose wrote that the organization is working towards passing legislation addressing the climate crisis and “a caring economy where everyone can afford their lives, an education system that is grounded in the truth of our pasts and in hope for the future, and make the rich pay their fair share so we can fund public goods.”
Students from Macalester, St. Katherine’s, Hamline, Augsburg, and Bemidji State University were all in attendance to show their support for affordable childcare, accessible healthcare, required ethnic studies and climate education, among other issues.
Their day started by rallying in the rotunda. Then, the group listened to legislators who each spoke about one of these issues.
Sen. Erin Murphy, who is a registered nurse and represents St. Thomas’s district, spoke about MN Care.
“It’s my job to take care of people when they come into the hospital,” Murphy said, “… I don’t ask them about their financial status, about their documentation, or their level of insurance. Because you know what? Healthcare is a human right.”
When the legislators were done speaking, students and community members broke out into groups based on issues.
“The most inspiring part of the day for me was the breakout rooms in which we discussed the specific policies the group was advocating for,” Lindsey Wirz, a freshman at St. Thomas, wrote to TommieMedia via email. “I was enlightened on how much people are affected by an issue that I am not directly affected by myself.”
During these meetings, attendees wrote postcards, advocated for issues on social media and called their Senators and Representatives to support the issues that they care about.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison spoke to the group about the importance of young people getting involved in politics.
“Young people don’t know that certain things are impossible,” Ellison said, “And you don’t know that, so you make it possible.”
Ellison’s words echoed what many students were already feeling that day.
“I think young people are very important in pushing and advocating for change,” Wirz wrote, “Young people know how to utilize media and other resources to their advantage, using it as a way to gain support and get their voices heard in a peaceful way.”
Minnesota has a history of having some of the highest voter turnout rates in the country. This year, nearly 61% of eligible Minnesota voters participated in the 2022 General Election, according to the Secretary of State.
Minnesota also had some of the highest estimated youth turnout rates in the country with 35.5% voting in the 2022 General Election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
“You need to be unreasonable, restless, demanding,” Ellison said.
If you would like to contact your Senator and/or Representative, you can use this free tool:
https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/districts/
St. Thomas- St. Paul Campus:
Sen. Erin Murphy
Rep. Kaohly Vang Her
St. Thomas- Minneapolis Campus
Sen. D. Scott Dibble
Rep. Frank Hornstein
Maddy Orr can be reached at orr04506@stthomas.edu.
What a great article, Maddy! Great to hear about the excellent political engagement that students like Morgan and Lindsey are involved in.