I have always been able to describe my friends as politically-inclined. We constructed conversations that consisted of debates about social injustices and well-followed predictions for any upcoming election.

I want to avoid saying that the new friends that I’ve made in college are not politically-inclined, because they are. I don’t know if I just naturally seek out students who are serious about changing the state of the world for the better. But my friends, my good friends, are all politically-inclined in some way or another.

I came into college with the premonition that students make up the most apathetic group of people when it comes to politics. Maybe I’m just overly optimistic sometimes, but I chose not to believe that warning.

It wasn’t until I got involved with a campaign that promotes political and social change for the better that I realized how difficult it actually is to get students to actively participate in and believe in the power of politics. My current job entails working with various CUNY students to gain support for an increase in the minimum wage for all New York State workers. Students who choose to get involved attend meetings and protests and speak to the press and several news outlets about why anything less than $15 is considered a poor working condition.

I expected it to be easy to find students who supported the cause and understood its significance. The first few weeks of the campaign instilled confidence in my theory that students were deeply connected to and rooted in politics. But as the days continued, the difficulty to find students who cared heightened. I could longer resort to my friend group. I had to actively seek out students who wanted to see and implement positive change.

Although I still maintain heaps of hope that students will support, believe in, and contribute to politics, I must acknowledge that most students I encounter seem to be, at best, only partially interested. I have to coax students to get involved and support a political initiative by mentioning the promise of a line on a résumé, which can only be viewed as completely disheartening.

Students have the most power but they don’t exercise it nearly enough. If we did as a whole, I speculate that the nation would have blazed through every undefined or unfair policy and reformed it. Students are crucial to positive change as an operation.

I can only maintain hope that there are students out there who are willing to propel this nation forward and leave it a better place than when they found it, to refer to my old high school motto.