Drum Major Institute

From the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy:

DMI Scholars is a “Public Policy 101” for young people who want to keep our country moving forward. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy created DMI Scholars to identify progressive college activists from underrepresented communities and train them in the skills necessary to obtain and succeed in entry-level public policy positions.

Our two-week Summer Institute for DMI Scholars will be in New York City during Summer 2012. There, Scholars will learn to approach problems through a policy lens and meet people on the frontlines fighting for fair and just public policy. After our intensive summer training, we will help students throughout the year explore careers in this field through internships and follow-up trainings.

With DMI’s network and expertise, DMI Scholars will become the future Legislative Directors, Policy Analysts and Advisors who fuel the progressive movement with new ideas and effective advocacy.

We strongly encourage students of color, immigrant, members of the LGBTQ community and students from low-income and working class backgrounds to apply. All expenses are paid.

Download the application at http://bit.ly/DMIScholars2012. To apply, please send application materials to abranche@drummajorinstitute.org.

Application deadline: January 31, 2012.

The following is a guest post by John Petro of the Drum Major Institute and originally appeared on the DMI Tumblr.

I was among the thousands of people cramming into Foley Square Wednesday evening, observing those who had come down to show their support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. I arrived at 4:30, and for the next hour roamed around the park. It had the energy of a festival, a celebration. The air was permeated by the sound of drums. Placards waved about in the air, many of them hastily written with marker on brown corrugated cardboard. And though the rally was organized by labor unions, those with union t-shirts were vastly outnumbered by those with no obvious union affiliation.

I could find no central focal point. If amplified speeches were going on, I could not hear them. Nearer to the drummers people were dancing. Standing on top of the fountain, I found it impossible to get a true sense of the size of the crowd. It was difficult to get it all within view.

This was symbolic, perhaps. The most frequent criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that there is no central organized message. However, looking out over the amorphous crowd that evening, it was very simple to identify what the movement was all about. That is, thousands were gathering here to speak out about economic injustice—injustices dealt to them, their families, and to the entire nation. There was a palpable sense that our democracy is in danger, that the voices of the many are being drowned out by the few: those with vast fortunes and a certain political agenda.

“We are the 99 percent,” the protesters chanted. In contrast, those that make the decisions that affect our lives are the other one percent. They’re the ones telling us that we’re better off if we allow corporations to pollute our air, to ship our jobs overseas, to cut corporate taxes and those on the wealthy. They tell us that we’re better off if we cut health benefits for workers, if we get rid of pensions, if we do away with the social safety net. We’re better off without high-speed rail or universal health care. These things are unattainable, we’re told, because government is out of money. If we raise taxes on the wealthiest to help pay for these things then the whole economy will fail, we’re told.

The crowd at Foley Square wasn’t falling for it.

Student loan debt was a common cause. After all, we were all told that we must go to college to get a good job. For some this is no problem; their parents can simply write a check. For others, loans are the only practical solution. Now many are out of college and are tens of thousands of dollars in debt. There are few jobs to be had and those who haven’t found one are wondering just how they’re supposed to pay all this debt off.

“The banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” the crowd chanted.

These are big, institutional problems that don’t lend themselves to easy answers. The seductive power of the Tea Party is that it offers simple, easy answers. Cut government and cut taxes. Get government out of your life and maybe someday you will be rich. The real answers aren’t going to be that easy.

Earlier that morning a Republican presidential candidate told the protesters that they ought not to blame Wall Street for the fact that they’re not rich. But no one at Foley Square said anything about wanting to become rich. For the former CEO of a fast-food pizza chain this may be a difficult idea to understand. It’s also difficult for New York City’s billionaire mayor to understand. He called the protesters “ridiculous.” This is the same mayor who expresses no concern over the growing gap between the rich and poor in his city.

The crowd at Foley Square wasn’t concerned about amassing riches. They wanted economic security and a say in their political process. They wanted to end the injustice that they see all about them, to eliminate want in the face of greed.

An hour later, looking south on Centre Street, the setting sun reflected off of the silver façade of a new luxury apartment building. A two-bedroom apartment in this building rents for $72,000 a year, a sum greater than many of the attendees’ salaries. And then the crowd began to move forward for the march down to Zuccotti Park. I walked with the chanting crowd in silence. When the march met with those encamped at Zuccotti Park there were cheers. There was dancing. Later a small group tried to storm some barricades. A white shirt officer swung his nightstick at the group. Thousands of cameras captured the moment.

This summer, the Drum Major Institute will begin its leadership pipeline program for the fifth class of DMI Scholars.

The DMI Scholars program helps bring talented young people from underrepresented communities into the field of public policy, allowing them to realize their dreams and serve as voices for the communities.

Among DMI Scholar alumni:

Here are a few updates on past DMI Scholars:

Joseph Thomas continues to serve as a Legislative Assistant on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and will begin law school this fall.

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza is currently writing in Hong Kong for the Asian Human Rights Commission and will begin law school at Yale University this fall.

Zach Duffy was a national finalist for the Truman Scholarship this year and will be interning at Campus Progress, the youth arm of the Center for American Progress this summer.

Tamara Joachim recently joined the Brennan Center for Justice as a Research Associate.

Daniel Wu will begin a joint Ph.D. in Social Policy and Sociology at Harvard University in the fall.

Dana El Kurd will be researching neo-liberal economic policies in the Arab world and their effect on democratization this summer as a Research Fellow at the University of Houston.

Rakim Brooks is among the first Ed Baker Fellows at Demos where he will be writing about democratic values in shaping varied social, political and economic issues.

Julia Yang recently left the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund to begin a graduate program in Social Policy at Oxford University.

Joseph Taranto continues to serve as Legislative & Budget Director for New York City Council member Melissa Mark- Viverito but will also begin his Master’s in Urban Policy Analysis at New School University this fall.

Gina Chen will be work at World Business Chicago this summer, an economic development public-private partnership in her hometown of Chicago. In the fall she will travel to China to research post- earthquake community development through a Fulbright grant.

We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. ...And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity. - Martin Luther King Jr.

So I've been lax in my duties. I'm on the blog host committee for an event put on by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy here in NYC. The benefit will present awards to Tavis Smiley, for outstanding work as a voice for social change in the news media, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg, for his PlaNYC - an effort to make NYC a model in sustainable urban development. The tix are pretty expensive, so I don't expect y'all to go rushing out and buy one (though there are discount rates for students and struggling activists), but you should go check out DMI and get a feel for what they do.

I agreed to be on the host committee for a number of reasons. The Drum Major institute is one of the premier progressive policy shops. They're pushing a lot of policy that is good for the middle class (and young folks), they've got one of the most kick-ass policy blogs around, they're innovating online, and, most importantly for Future Majority, they are working hard to fill some holes in progressive youth infrastructure through their new DMI Scholars program.

I've written before about the social justice/progressive politics divide. DMI Scholars is one of the few organizations working to bridge that divide. Structured as a summer boot camp in public policy 101, the program provides young activists with the skills and connections they need to pursue a career in public policy. The program is just getting started this summer. If successful, it will help lay the groundwork to bring fresh ideas steeped in social justice and community organizing into the progressive policy world, and help young community organizers take their activism to the next level.

If you are a young person and think policy might be your game, I'd look into snagging a spot in next summer's program. If you are a funder reading this blog, the work of DMI Scholars is a great reason to support the Institute.