MAAYF Student Intern Sarvani Kunapareddy shares her experience at the 2022 Center on Civic Engagement (COCE) National Convention

After moving to the US at the age of 4 and living in various states over the years I never thought that I might one day be in the position that I am in right now. Growing up I was very aware of my immigration situation and the fact that one day I might be leaving the only place I know as home. As a childhood visa arrival I face a situation that over 250,000 visa immigrants face- deportation at the age of 21 without a clear pathway to citizenship. After 15 years of living in the US I have finally received my green card, this was something I never thought would happen. Because I never thought I would move forward in the next step of the citizenship process, I never truly thought about the nuances of the voting process in the US nor how I could vote. 

However, this past week I got to attend the 2022 Center on Civic Engagement’s Convention in Houston. I went into this conference with little to no background or experience on campaign work, phone banking, or canvassing. When I first got to the conference I was worried that my inexperience would cause me to stand out like a needle in the haystack, but this allowed me to learn so much from others at the conference. During the four days I met over 50 people from all over the country, all of whom were doing amazing work in their communities. 

 The focus of the conference was to not only teach how to do important campaign work but to practice it with labs and simulations. On the first two days we were tasked to choose a cartoon character who would run for president and just like that Team Garfield for President became the dream team. During the first day we also had informational sessions with folks who were highly experienced in campaign work. They explained how they have set up positive work environments for their volunteers and how we can do the same in our work. We first set up our campaign space, social media outlets, and planned out how Garfield would win. 

Our team was so well balanced that we were able to balance the different social media outlets. Our strategy was to target different age groups using different social media apps. Tik Tok and Instagram are the most popular apps for Gen Z. We decided to make attractive tik toks that would gain attraction. Over the four days we ended up getting more than 1000 views on our tik tok account. Although Instagram and Facebook attract different age groups we soon realized that we could cross post and explain Garfield’s beliefs and views on both of these platforms. Using Twitter helped us gain followers who were more politically inclined. Twitter also allowed us to meet some of our competition, like Team Snoopy and Team Phineas. Over the first two days I was able to develop people management skills which I could use at MAAYF. 

Sarvani, first from the left, with her group.

The next two days helped me gain footing on how to really do the work for a campaign. Experienced speakers explained how we can use data to reach out to voters and get them out to vote. Having never used VAN (Voter Activation Network) before I was very enthusiastic to learn all about it. We learned about the functionality of VAN and how we can utilize it to properly target voters in our community. The best part of the day was actually practicing VAN and finding voters in certain precincts that we can target. Later on in the third day we actually got to the phone bank and I soon realized that the work would be interesting. Over the one hour I was calling people I had two people pick up one of whom hung up the second I finished speaking. But these experiences truly allowed me to understand the work of campaigns as I had never done this before. Throughout the last two days of the training I got to sit in on more informational sessions regarding phone banking, ID calling, GOTV Calling, and text banking. Over the last two days I got to get into the technical skills that go hand in hand with campaign work. 

Over the four days of the conference I not only gained knowledge that helped me understand this work better but I was able to bring it back to the MAAYF and use it in our own work. I have attended many conferences  before for other work but the COCE convention helped to properly develop my skills for civic engagement and network with folks all around the country. I never thought that I would be in the stage where I could even think about voting or even get others in my community to vote but now I am equipped with skills that will help my community through the MAAYF. 

Sarvani is in the US on an H4 visa. She was profiled in Teen Vogue- https://www.teenvogue.com/story/21-under-21-2020  for her activism and leadership.