Austin Corps

Senior Hailey Matteson said the mayoral forum that Austin Corps hosted was “really cool.”

“We got to have candidates come and have students learn about the candidates. All of our events that we do are student planned,” she said.

Austin Corps also planned a student voter registration drive where it got all of the eligible seniors at Akins to register to vote.

Matteson said they were inspired by their Austin Corps teacher who was running for a spot as a City Councilmember in District 9 spot.

“Before this class, I didn’t want to have anything to do with politics but now, because of this class, I want to be involved in politics. If you’re a politically motivated person this would be a good internship for you.”

“It was the first field trip where we went to meet the mayor. We learned about all the different policies that he was trying to get put into place for the city and we were learning about our district council members. It was really that conversation with the mayor, talking to him, seeing what he wanted to do for our city and then realizing that there are things that I wanted to do for the city. Things that I want to do to really help people and get involved. Politics is a really good way to do that.”

Students in the Austin Corps program go to Austin government departments so they can learn how the city works. By the second semester, students choose their three favorite departments and are then selected to intern at one of them.

“It starts with teenagers and younger generations because we’re starting to get to vote after we graduate,” senior Michael Garcia said. “The older generation is just getting older and was basically the new phase of politics and I think it’s really important for us to show that. Whoever shows up to vote is who will be in charge. ”

Garcia said most students don’t care about politics because they think that the system is rigged.

“They think that one vote isn’t going to sway anything, they think that even if they do choose, all the candidates suck so it wouldn’t even be worth it and they stop caring.”

Another factor is time, Garcia said, because they don’t feel like they have an obligation to vote so they don’t do it.

Senior Marissa Lugo said she got involved in Austin Corps because she was already interested in politics.

“I think students should care politically because that’s them in every aspect of their life. For instance, if they wanted to vote on who they want in their district, the people that are going to help them are them. If they want to vote for a specific person who has the same views, that has the same specific wants as they do, they should support them.”

Austin Corps can help students now and into the future, Lugo said.

“As a senior, most people turn eighteen in their senior year. That’s when you can vote and that’s when you begin to get all this knowledge to know what certain people do, such as the people in the city council, the city manager who actually does more than the mayor.”