Emerging Advocates Student Group
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GROUP FACILITATOR
Liz Weintraub
Senior Advocacy Specialist at Association of University Centers on Disabilities, or AUCD.
STAY INFORMED
Welcome to the Think College Emerging Advocates Group for Students!
In April 2019, a group of college students with disabilities came to Washington, DC to advocate for the Higher Education Act. They advocated with staff from inclusive college programs and others. This was very exciting to see, so this Emerging Advocates group was created for students with disabilities to talk with others so they could continue to share ideas and learn tips together about advocacy.
That initial group has grown to include dozens of emerging leaders who get together on quarterly calls, and we welcome new members. This group is led by and for people with disabilities. Of course, supporters are welcome.
Click the sign up button if you would like to receive email about this group's meeting dates and other information.
Meeting Schedule
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, March 27 from 3-4pm ET Sign up here!
Email Sheila at sheila.johnson@umb.edu if you have questions.
LEARN ABOUT OUR PAST MEETINGS
Date: April 11, 2023
Title: The Past, Present, and Future of Advocacy
Host: Liz Weintraub
Guest Speakers: Olivia Baist and Nick Hadaway
What happened: Liz talked about how important Judy Heumann was. She died this year and we lost a wonderful advocate. The group learned what Think College Policy Advocates are. You can learn all about them by click here and reading this article.
Date: December 1, 2022
Title: How to advocate for what you want
Host: Liz Weintraub
Guest Speaker: Steven Brief
What happened: Our guest was Steven Brief. Steven is a disability speaker and advocate. Steven has autism. He faced a lot of challenges growing up. He learned how to advocate for himself and others. He told the students at the meeting all about challenges he had and how he advocated for himself.
Date: September 28, 2022
Title: How to advocate for what you want
Host: Liz Weintraub
Guest Speaker: Nick Harmon
What happened: Liz started the discussion talking about how you can advocate for things you want. Liz introduced the guest speaker Nick Harmon. Nick graduated from University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Nick wanted to walk on stage to get his diploma, but he couldn’t. So, he made a big deal and got a lot of people to support him. He did walk.
Click here to open the video in a new window.
Date: March 10, 2022
Title: A discussion with students about the future of the group
Host: Liz Weintraub
What happened: Students who have been part of the group for a long time and brand new students talked about what they like about the group and meetings. They also talked about how the group could be different. Liz will talk about what might change at the May 3 meeting.
We did not have a guest presenter. We do not have a recording or transcript from this meeting.
Date: December 8, 2021
Title: Picking Topics
Host: Liz Weintraub
What happened: The students shared ideas about who they want to invite for special guest speakers for future meetings. They mentioned a few names and Liz is going to follow up to see who will be a guest.
Date: September 23, 2021
Title: A discussion with disability rights activist Judy Heumann
Presenter: Judy Heumann
Host: Liz Weintraub and Majolyn (a junior at Hostos Community College)
What happened: Students spent over an hour asking Judy questions about the advocacy that she has done during her life. Judy answered every question. This was a really fun meeting. All of the students were very excited to meet Judy. There was a lot of laughter too! Watch the video below to see what happened. You can also read what happened by clicking this link. It will download a Word doc.
Date: December 20, 2020
Title: A discussion with students about COVID-19
Host: Liz Weintraub
What happened: Students from 6 different colleges joined the group. The group talked about what good came from the pandemic and what they were looking forward to when things get back to normal.
We did not have a guest presenter. We do not have a recording or transcript from this meeting.
Date: September 10, 2020
Topic: A discussion about voting
Hosted: Liz Weintraub and Lauren, Liz’s co-worker
What happened: Liz and Lauren made a presentation on how to how to register to vote and how to vote safely. They also told students good ways to learn about the people running for office and more. Watch the video to learn more.
Check out Liz and Lauren's PowerPoint slides by clicking here.
Date: December 3, 2019
Title: A discussion about the 2019 elections
Host: Liz Weintraub
What happened: Students talked about the things that they care about for the election. Liz did a presentation on PowerPoint slides. They talked about how the election addressed disabilities and about disability laws. The group also learned about a program called the Think College Policy Advocates. This a group of students who do political advocacy. Click here to learn more about the Policy Advocates. You can watch the video below to see what happened in the meeting.
Check out Liz's PowerPoint presentation slides by clicking here.
Date: September 19, 2019
Title: A discussion about advocacy
Host: Liz Weintraub
What happened: Liz did a PowerPoint presentation. The students talked about what advocacy means. They talked about how to advocate for yourself. They shared that registering to vote is one way to create change. You can watch the video below to learn more.
Check out Liz's PowerPoint presentation slides by clicking here.
Date: April 16, 2019 TBA