I had the pleasure of interviewing Julia Stokes who is a junior Political Science major and Communications minor at Saint Joseph’s University from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. I asked Julia, “What inspired you to pick your major?”, and she went into great detail about it.
She told me about the time when she was eleven years old and wrote a letter to President Obama about the horrific Sandy Hook shooting that took place. She explained how it negatively impacted her family and upset it made her. At the time, she did not fully understand what was happening, but she felt like she needed to help so that is what inspired her to write a letter to the president. Her parents were very supportive of it and she quickly mailed the letter.
Two months later, Julia and her family received an invitation to come to the White House and sit behind the president as he signed gun control legislation into office. Getting to meet and say hello to President Obama and Vice President Biden was a major highlight for her. She got to sit directly behind him on the stage and described it as a “huge media event” with flashing cameras and excited people everywhere. Although she was slightly nervous and scared, she had the time of her life! Right after Julia and her family left the event, they received a call from CNN asking if they wanted to come on for an interview.
She was amazed at how politicized everything was which greatly motivated her to participate in activism. This led her to be heavily involved with activism in high school and eventually college. This amazing experience from her childhood is what inspired Julia to choose Political Science as her major because she knew how much activism was involved and potentially open some doors for her.
