College Youth Activism: Interview with IU Student Leader, Mike Pitz
Hello, everyone and welcome back. I hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday afternoon. We are starting a brand new series on my swell cast, which I am very excited about. This series will be dedicated to showcasing how young adults in College are showing activism within their communities. Now, today, I have the special privilege of talking with a colleague of mine, Mike Pitts from Indiana University. Mike is an executive director at IU Student Government
Michael Pitz
@mikepitx · 1:08
Izzy, thank you so much for this opportunity. I am honored to be the first interviewee on this amazing podcast. So thank you for having me once again. My name is Mike Pitts. I'm a senior here on on. I Use campus in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana, currently serving as codirector of student Life alongside as he spreads for those listening. Previously, I have held numerous positions on campus
Thank you so much, Mike, for showing us some more insight on the other roles that you held and hold on campus. My next question for you is very simple. What are some ways through these roles that you've mentioned and that you advocate for students. In other words, what kind of activism have you shown through these roles? I would love to hear what you have to say about this and feel free to choose one particular role to elaborate on or just kind of give us a brief overview
Michael Pitz
@mikepitx · 1:22
And then, of course, that activism kind of transforms in the fraternity sense, as I've kind of enabled and equipped young leaders in Fiji to take up the reins for that organization who have really continued the rhetoric of ending the R word, something I'm very passionate about. So that's probably my favorite come to mind example of activism in these roles, however, there are certainly other, maybe less concrete examples across the board
Thank you so much, Mike, for sharing that with me. I definitely hear the passion in your voice when you speak about that which I absolutely love and appreciate. I guess a followup question to that is, what are other causes that you are really passionate about? Just kind of like a running list of different things that you're passionate about. I know that from our personal conversations, that there are a lot of things that you're really passionate about, that I really admire about you
Michael Pitz
@mikepitx · 2:42
There's a philanthropy event we are going to hold called Fiji versus Ferrari. Although the actual cause was to place AED in first response vehicles and places on campus, primarily sorority fraternity housing that are not equipped with automated external defibrillators with them. Kind of a more activism standpoint that I thought was absolutely beautiful is that we got to work hand in hand with the Lucky Seven, which is comprised predominantly of international students who are car lovers
If you're interested in hearing more interviews like this, please follow my spell cast as this is only the first part of my new series, which aims to uplift the voices of College youth activists. Please also check out Mike on his LinkedIn, which I posted a link to above and feel free to ask any follow up questions to Mike or share what College that you also align with of what Mike mentioned again
Hey, Mike, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed listening to your conversation with Izzy here and learning more about you and what you're doing on campus, specifically, the work you're doing with Mars went to a school that was absolutely fantastic. But unfortunately, there was a very intense sort of macho identity at the school, and a lot of the men there, I won't say all of them did not respect women in the way that they should have
phil spade
@Phil · 4:21
But if I had it to do over again, I'd probably spend less time preparing for the next basketball game and maybe a little bit more on philanthropy, but I think a lot of people get the idea of fraternity from the movie Animal House and just think of it as a large receptacle of beer cans. And that just isn't the case
phil spade
@Phil · 3:28
I can't say that I thought about the world, but I would think about the community. But so many of what I saw around me was checking the box. Hey, I'll volunteer for the Special Olympics. I'll go, I'll hold something, I'll check a box and I'm done and no thought about it and just kind of, yeah, I know. It's a good thing to do. I'll go do it, and then I'm done
Michael Pitz
@mikepitx · 2:58
Year after year, we watch his movie, a Doctor that worked with Ryan White comes in and speaks with us. It's incredibly moving, and we proudly wear RW on our marathon shirts every year. Beyond that, too, it has evolved because of the activism that so many student life poured into it. Like I said earlier, it's Ryan and Ashley Week. Ashley Louise Krause was a student leader here on campus years ago who was tragically killed after an IUDM exec meeting by a drunk driver
Michael Pitz
@mikepitx · 3:30
Wow. What a fantastic question. I really think that I might come back to this later to kind of once I've collected my thoughts more so, but hopping right into it, our generation is going to change, change the game. I've been 100% confident about that since starting my student leader career in late middle school. We do have that desire to be inclusive. I think that's probably the best thing that we have in an earlier post
phil spade
@Phil · 3:37
And from day one, it's how are you going to differentiate yourself and kids are building their resumes earlier and earlier. I think that's a really good observation. And I really hadn't thought about that at all until you mentioned it. So I too I want to think about that a little bit more and what that means going forward. But really interesting observation. And I would Echo your advice to any College student. Do it because you want to do it and do it for your reasons