112th Senate Committee on Civic Engagement
Date: 10/27/2024 Time: 12:00-12:25pm Location: Zoom Present: Angela Xiong (Committee Chair), Ethan Edelstein, Prisha Agrawal, Lucy Landry, Sumire Sumi Absent (Excused): Absent (Unexcused): Yonatanne Desta, Cynthia Hidalgo-Sanchez Visitors: Brendon Davis (Science Policy and Diplomacy Group), Lauren Hesse (Science Policy and Diplomacy Group)
Meeting began at 12:03pm.
- Brendon Davis
- VP of Science Policy for the Science Policy and Diplomacy Group
- Discussion of the past work of the group
- Annual Hill Day - advocacy in DC for different projects (COVID ended this, but it was revived last year)
- STEM student immigration
- Alternative protein farming choices
- Women’s health research (led by Lauren Hesse)
- Writing projects, workshops
- Handouts and emails to congressional offices
- Annual Hill Day - advocacy in DC for different projects (COVID ended this, but it was revived last year)
- Traditionally run by graduate students and postdocs
- How could we incorporate undergraduate students more?
- Give SGA the roadmap and help plan with the Hill Day?
- Choosing general initiatives applicable to undergrads to create a larger Hill Day?
- How could we incorporate undergraduate students more?
- Lauren Hesse
- Shared WHRA Hill Day One Pager
- Everything works fast on the Hill
- Staffers and congressional offices are busy all the time and meetings are short; attention must be fought for
- One way to do this is to make it personal to gain attention
- “Everyone has had a woman in their life that has been overlooked…”
- Starting conversations organically, then opening it up to policy recommendations
- Offices may tell you that some things that cannot be changed
- We must send lots of emails and hope that they have availability on the same days
- Starting conversations organically, then opening it up to policy recommendations
- “Everyone has had a woman in their life that has been overlooked…”
- Everything works fast on the Hill
- Willing to share their funding processes
- Shared WHRA Hill Day One Pager
- Brendon Davis - Does the committee have a vision for what to advocate for?
- Angela Xiong - National advocacy day, Maryland general assembly
- Health policy, science policy
- More bipartisan, students are interested in these fields at Hopkins
- Interested in exploring the intersection of science and policy
- SGA can provide some funding
- This year the committee would like to work Hesse and Davis
- More volunteers would be needed for our own full, independent advocacy day, so this may not be possible this year
- Health policy, science policy
- Angela Xiong - National advocacy day, Maryland general assembly
- Brendon Davis - Recommends that the committee choose a specific initiative
- For example, this year’s Hill Day will focus on language appropriations
- Lauren Hesse - one or two of the committee/SGA members should work on each of the initiatives we choose
- Angela Xiong - what does planning for Hill Day look like?
- Brendon Davis - big groups meetings with all three initiatives once a month
- Big training session closer to Hill Day
- Smaller, more frequent group meetings for individual initiatives
- Lauren Hesse - discussion on group activities, embassy visits
- Brendon Davis - big groups meetings with all three initiatives once a month
- Brendon Davis - help with the budget can be given, would be great to get more people involved
- Prisha Agrawal - Let’s open this up to SGA as a volunteering opportunity; see who would want to help especially since this is such a small committee
- Brendon Davis - Hill Day is a large commitment
- Research, writing, and preparation goes into this
- Those interested must keep dates open in march
- A big commitment, but it's worth it
- Most meetings will be on Zoom until the large training day
- This is because many people from different campuses will be joining
- Research, writing, and preparation goes into this
- Davis and Hesse will continue to keep in touch with and update Angela Xiong
Meeting ended at 12:25pm.