About 40 MSCTC students received a taste of progressive activism last weekend via a training program named for a late U.S. senator.
Campus Camp Wellstone is a non-partisan program designed to build skills like campaign planning, coalition building and message development. It is held on college and university campuses around the country, and on Friday and Saturday, Campus Camp Wellstone visited Fergus Falls.
"It's teaching people how to organize and mobilize people so they can build respectful coalitions," said Heather Thormodson, MSCTC Director of Student Life. "This is, what I think, a once in a lifetime opportunity. We are thrilled to offer it."
Campus Camp Wellstone attracted leaders from the college's Student Senate, students from MSCTC sociology classes, a handful of faculty and others.
MSCTC student Baird Miltich, 23, said he attended the program hoping to learn how he could become a better voice for change.
"The main thing for me is I want to try to bring more grassroots groups together," Miltich said, explaining that progressive change comes from the efforts of everyday people. "It's more about a community and really getting people together, and it doesn't have to be so radical."
The skills students learned over the weekend may come in handy as MSCTC-Fergus Falls prepares to host a series of events in honor of Earth Day April 22. Those events will include a tree planting ceremony near the Spartan statue at 9:30 a.m.; a visit from Rick Terway of Parks and Recreation on a possible campus trail system at 10 a.m.; a 12 p.m. visit from Mayor Russ Anderson on the Bag Lady Project, an effort to promote reusable shopping bags; and help with bike tune-ups from 2 to 4 p.m. near the dragonfly statue between the science center and the administrative building.
