New Power Campus Challenge at UK! A Student's Perspective

 For the past two weeks we at UK KFTC have participated in the New Power Campus Challenge, an intense competition between several colleges and universities across Kentucky. We started out with the campaign visit from Bill Clinton, hoping that we could divert the crowd’s attention from the campaign rhetoric to the real issues facing Kentucky through the New Power Pledge. However, most of the students, teachers, and other audience members were a bit distracted by the entertainment of the event, and we left a little disappointed. But this small setback could not stop New Power! After putting up flyers just about everywhere on UK’s campus (even the bathrooms), UK KFTC held a New Power Party to celebrate. Put simply, we rocked it. The New Power Party included three of my favorite things and three crucial elements for a party: pizza, politics, and a strobe light. And yes, the pizza was gone by the end.

This week, UK KFTC concentrated on talking to people about the issues and asking them to sign the New Power Pledge. I’m not even sure how many hours we surveyed the cafeteria and packed walkways of UK. Sometimes I worried we were going to run out of pledges to sign. Lastly, last night we helped put on a youth-led senate candidate forum, so that young people could finally stand up and say something to these candidates. The forum was a huge success, with all kinds of inspiring comments and good company. Over 100 students showed up to the event, so we obviously had to ask them to sign the New Power Pledge. Throughout these past two weeks UK KFTC created an environment on campus that I’ve never seen before. We talked to countless people about these issues, and people responded really well. We held a raucous party on a Wednesday night during midterms. We talked about the real issues in Kentucky when the candidates wouldn’t. All in all, we created New Power. We can’t wait to do it again!

                                                                    -Jared Flanery, KFTC Member and UK Student