Hello to the future policymakers, society shapers, and public-sector groovers and shakers who have found their way here. If you’re reading this, odds are you want to go into politics — maybe you’ll get a government or political science degree, or maybe you’ll go the philosophy and social work academic track and approach governance from a more creative path.
Admittedly, you’re a few years off from being eligible to run for president (unless you’re secretly neither a high school student nor two kids in a trench coat but a wringer in their mid-thirties), but you can start carving your political path now. The more you prepare early in high school, the more compelling your college applications will be. Here’s how you can get your campaign off the ground.
Read
This one is a no-brainer: if you’re going to pursue a career in politics, you’ll need to know the history of governance, get a firm grasp on political theory, and keep up with current events. You should follow a wide range of media that covers local and global news, reports on domestic affairs and international relations, and does so from several vantage points (that means reading coverage across the political spectrum from home and abroad). Basically, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the BBC and al Jazeera, NPR and C-Span.
As you find your footing in contemporary politics, you can begin fortifying your foundation, too. Every politician of interest has spawned a dozen biographies (or worse — written a memoir), and that’s just the scholarly work or personal disclosures recounting the lives and legacies of public figures. You’ve also got political theory to contend with, which runs the gamut from Machiavelli’s The Prince to W. E. B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction. Basically, whip out your library card, and keep ‘em coming.
Take Extra Classes
As with any discipline, there’s plenty of information you can learn on your own, but it’s great to have expert guidance as you delve into specialized topics, undertake your own research, and explore archives. If you want to go beyond where APUSH, gov, and student council can take you at your high school, we recommend you enroll in additional politics programs that suit your interests.
You can find classes through nearby community colleges, and of course there’s no shortage of online options. We typically suggest students start by checking out the tried and true virtual platforms, like Coursera, EdX, Open Yale Courses, and Harvard Online Courses. If you’ve been collecting dream colleges with the perfect politics program or best history departments, though, you should absolutely find out if they have made some seminars publicly available in the same way as Yale and Harvard.
Finally, residential pre-college programs are a great idea if “sleepaway camp: scholastic edition” sounds right up your alley. These summer courses are designed specifically for high schoolers, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to start building a relationship with specific colleges, previewing campus life, building up your transcript, and forging relationships with similarly driven peers from all over the country.
Do Real Stuff
The third, and arguably most important, prong in our world-domination plan is this: get first-hand experience and get engaged. Yes, you can invest in great extracurriculars at school, too, between running for student council or founding an advocacy club for a cause important to you (youth voter registration? the fight against book bans? expanded sexual education?). But, unlike in other disciplines, you can get work experience in the field like… yesterday.
First of all, politicians are generally rabid about culling their next generation of constituents, and there are avenues on avenues for you to volunteer, intern, or get a job. Want to see how campaigns work? Join a grassroots movement or connect with a field organizer. Go to council meetings for your town or city. See if your state legislature or federal state reps have a page program for high schoolers (many do).
Maybe this makes it sound like you’ve got your work cut out for you, but the good news is there’s so many opportunities for you to put your money where your mouth is and a lot of it is pretty fun. And if you become the next Jimmy Carter, we’ll be saying we knew you when…
If you want to go into politics, reach out to us here for a personalized college application plan.