Students soak up the centuries old history of Washington D.C.
The history and prestige of the nation’s capital opened itself up to Oklahoma Christian University’s own this summer.
Senior Lydia Carlton and sophomore Brandon McWaters attended the Eagle Forum Collegians Summit, which aired on C-SPAN, in Washington, D.C. last July.
They learned from congressmen, famed authors and distinguished scholars from some of the best universities in the country.
Carlton and McWaters won scholarships to attend the Summit last spring. Two months later they met nearly 200 students from across the country and Europe at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Students aspiring to be educators, doctors, lawyers or artists joined in a single auditorium atop the Heritage Foundation’s halls to listen and learn from some of the top conservative thinkers in the country.
Not all those in attendance earned the scholarship won by Carlton and McWaters. The two submitted essays and reference letters, as well as interviewed for the scholarship. Both students reported the efforts well worth their time.
“I enjoyed knowing other students my age wanted to do something for our country,” Carlton said. “I met people from California, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, New York… all of us there because we wanted one thing: to learn how to best serve our country.”
The Eagle Forum has offices in St. Louis and Washington. Phyllis Schlafly founded the Forum in 1972, basing her volunteer, non-partisan organization on traditional family values.
Named by the “Ladies’ Home Journal” as one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century, the Washington University lawyer has also written or edited 20 books. She is a major proponent in the continuous movement to retain constitutionally sound principles, as well as traditional family values.
According to Carlton, an elementary education major, the Eagle Forum achieved its goals.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be in politics, but even if I’m a third grade teacher I can still teach my students how to be good citizens,” Carlton said. “I can teach them that they can vote, they can participate in democracy and they can stand up for what they believe in.”
Bunny Chambers, president of the Oklahoma chapter of Eagle Forum for the past 10 years, was instrumental in sending Carlton and McWaters to the Summit.
“Our primary goal is to elect and educate conservative workers willing to fight for the Constitution and American liberty,” Chambers said. “The valuable hours students can spend with like-minded people are so important.”
Chambers said the three pillars of the Eagle Forum are God, family and country. She said the beliefs in these foundations help preserve political, economic and social policies adherent to the Constitution.
“Our achievements [as an organization] prove that citizen-volunteers can affect government policies in the United States Congress and in Oklahoma,” Chambers said. “We work to effectively communicate to the public and the media the principles for which we stand.”
McWaters, who loved experiencing the energized crowds bustling with newspapers and coffee, took away a view similar to Carlton’s.
“Being with so many liberty-minded students created a really inspiring atmosphere,” McWaters said.
McWaters does not affiliate himself with either the Republican or the Democratic Party, but instead establishes his political ideas on more independent grounds. His favorite speaker at the Summit was Tom Pawken, author of the book “Bringing America Home,” because of his challenge to neo-conservatism in America today.
Carlton favored speakers Meredith Dake and Larry O’Connor, editor-in-chief of Breitbart.tv. The pair teamed up on new media, teaching students how to utilize social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as how to promote blog sites, web pages and how to write opinion letters to newspapers. The lecture included tips on investigating stories and searching for the truth among a society where mass media can so easily dissuade or cloud that truth.
“You wouldn’t think a speech on media very interesting, especially because we figure we know everything already, as we spend so much time goofing around on the Internet,” Carlton said. “But Dake and O’Connor offered a perspective on media usage I had never considered before.”
Hannah Giles, a 21-year-old college journalist, knows the power of student-run media. Giles spoke at the Summit of her passion for seeking the truth through journalism. She and fellow journalist James O’Keefe exposed a scandal last year when she went undercover as a prostitute seeking advice on money laundering at an Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) office. She represented the potent influence young people have on the world when they set their minds to working hard at exposing the truth.
“Young people need to be knowledgeable on the issues,” Chambers said. “It’s critical to the preservation of the values we love, values like the sanctity of marriage, life, free enterprise, equal opportunity for all and, of course, the very freedom to pursue all of these things.”
The next Eagle Forum Collegians Summit in Washington is set for July of 2011. Students can apply for scholarships at www.efcollegians.org.
Photo Submitted by: Brandon McWaters
