Student campaign volunteers

One local candidate that has caught the eye of McCallum students is Jared D. Breckenridge, a 25-year-old college student running for election for the Austin Independent School District School Board at-large Position 8. Breckenridge is currently pursuing a teaching degree at Huston-Tillotson University and emphasizes the importance of student involvement in decisions made by their school district. Breckenridge has enlisted the help of four McCallum students on his campaign team: juniors John Hamlet, Anna McClellan and Sarah Reyes and sophomore Julia Husted. Breckenridge also has campaign volunteers from Anderson High School and Ann Richards School For Young Women Leaders.

“[Breckenridge] has been a consistent attendee at the board meetings for the last several years and he’s been very active in his community,” said Hamlet, the Breckenridge campaign’s director of community outreach. “One of the things he would do is encourage more students to come to board meetings and voice their opinions on what happens because he feels like not a lot of students go, and that’s kind of important as they’re making the rules for how they’re going to take care of us.”

Hamlet emphasized the importance of getting involved in politics at a young age, citing protection of human rights as a personal motivation. “I feel like a lot of people our age are like, ‘Oh what happens happens, we don’t really have a say, so why should we care?’” Hamlet said. “But that is kind of the worst viewpoint to have about this whole situation, especially now when so many rights are being infringed, and the country is so divided. People are always saying that us kids, we’re the future of the country, but no, we’re the present of the country, and it’s time to start acting like it, because the world is not going to wait for us to come and try to fix it.”