I love my job. Well, I have two. I have two part-time, paying jobs. I’d say I’m faring pretty well compared to a lot of people in my graduating class. I like them both a lot, but I’m going to talk about the one that doesn’t make me get up early on Sundays.
I work part-time as a Regional Campus Organizer for the Secular Student Alliance (SSA).
The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.
Basically, the SSA, which was formed in 2000, supports student groups at colleges and high schools across the country (almost 400). Student groups may become affiliates of the SSA by following some minimal standards of affiliation (like being non-discriminatory, and supporting a naturalistic world-view) and by showing an ability to lead a student organization on campus. My specific role in this is to provide hands on organizing support to the SSA affiliates in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. I can help them bring speakers and utilize the many resources that SSA has to offer. There are 36 affiliates in my region, and I suspect that by this time next year there will be 40.
How did I get involved in the secular movement?
I knew I was in some way non-religious since middle school or so. Religion just seemed silly to me (and still does). I didn’t know there were other “atheists” until high school (“atheist” is in quotations because we didn’t really know that word until the end of high school). After graduating I got settled into my dorm room at Indiana University Bloomington. I made a couple friends on my floor, most notably a girl who lived in the room across from me. Most of us had white boards or bulletin boards on our doors. I noticed a “Secular Alliance of IU” business card pinned on her door.
There’s…. a group for that?
I didn’t go to any meetings my freshman year, but I did attend three larger events. A Richard Dawkins lecture, Darrel Ray lecture, and the Atheist Bus Campaign “Can You Be Good Without God?” debate. It’s very strange to look back on the Richard Dawkins talk. I went mainly because I volunteered as a usher for the auditorium. This meant that you got to see the shows you ushered for free. The Dawkins event was already free, but so full that people had to be turned away. I did my ushering job and sat in a balcony box with the other ushers and Dawkins began his presentation…. and then I realized that I had a bio-anthropology exam the next morning, for which I was terribly unprepared. I ended up leaving after just fifteen minutes. I went home and studied and did just fine on the exam.
Two years later I ended up leading the group who brought Richard Dawkins to Indiana University in 2009.
My sophomore year I attended meetings regularly, but at that point the group was very small and mostly based on social interaction and eating waffles; but I was an activist! I wanted to plan, and organize, and DO! So, I ran for Outreach Director, which filled my junior year. After that I ran for President. I accomplished a lot in that time, including greatly increasing membership and recognition on campus. Here is a sampling of the activities the group did while I was President.
The group at IU was lucky enough to have no controversies while I was there. But what if we had? What if we had an issue with discrimination from the administration? Who would we contact? Had an issue like that occurred, I would have surely talked to Lyz, the Director of Campus Organizing at the SSA. But what would their small office that is already doing SO MUCH for nearly 400 affiliates be able to do immediately?
How can we help students better?
Well, this is an issue at many schools, and now the SSA is crowdfunding for a Rapid Response Organizer. Someone who can immediately travel to provide real, hands-on support in these situations. To interact with media, to know the rights of students and help protect them. This is ambitious, but it’s the next step in providing help to secular students. The SSA has just under 400 affiliates, 50 of which are at high schools. Every day I get to help empower students to organize and lead secular student groups. If you would also like to help empower students, please either donate to the Rapid Response Organizer crowdfunding campaign, or share the word!
I have a personal fundraising page here. But feel free to create your own page and encourage your friends and family to donate!