Roosevelt Institute at City College of New YorkWe are a student policy organization that engages new generations in a unique form of progressive activism that empowers young people as leaders and promotes their ideas for change.
The Roosevelt Institute Campus Network is the first non-partisan, non-profit, student-run think tank in the United States, with chapters at over 85 different university campuses across the country and abroad. Here at the City College of New York, we strive to affect our community by advocating for progressive ideas and policies. The Roosevelt Institute at the City College of New York, through hard work and dedication was proud to launch in the fall of 2011 through the efforts of Edgar Romero and Mohammed Alam. The chapter was originally established in October of 2010 by four dedicated students. The efforts made by a few students who got together and worked on a grassroots recruitment strategy on the college campus, going from class to class, emailing department chairs and professors, posting professionally designed flyers all over campus, creating an online application to begin interviewing students for leadership roles and launching their own website and blog. Weeks into the its establishment, the chapter had a full executive board of six members followed by a director and deputy director for each of the six policy areas, all of whom expressed commitment to progressive action and a desire for public service. The City College of New York chapter collaborated with other clubs, organizations and departments on campus. Ranging from the Student Association for International Studies to policy research organizations like the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies and the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service, and also receiving guidance from the Political Science Department. The chapter also joined in with a coalition of chapters in New York City to begin working a blue print for New York, which they all collectively titled it the “New Deal for New York.” Months after the launch, the chapter has accumulated over thirty members, all of whom now work in the policy areas of Economic Development, Equal Justice, Energy and the Environment, Healthcare, Education, and Defense & Diplomacy. Moving forward, the chapter is now working on producing several local and community policy proposals to be presented to the community stakeholders and elected officials, as well as working to build coalitions with college campus groups and local community organizations and non-profits. |
STUDENT-driven and Bottom up.
IDEAS that challenge the status quo. LOCAL policy change. NATIONAL voice. DEEP ideas infrastructure. POWERFUL legacy. EFFECTIVE leaders PROGRESSIVE values. UNIQUE model for engagement. COMMUNITY connected by values, vision, and theory for change. |