The text appeared unexpectedly one dark November evening and my heart immediately started racing. The executive director of Girls Lobby was burnt out and I could choose to step up or let a nonprofit I’d volunteered dozens of hours for sink into oblivion. Through Girls Lobby, I was empowering high school girls and refugees to speak with legislators and advocate for themselves. I thought of all the classrooms and events I’d visited as I read that text and I knew I couldn’t let those students down.

That’s how a 23-year-old public relations junior became the executive director of a nonprofit organization.

Drawing from my in-class public relations campaigns, I knew the first step to our revitalization effort was research. Girls Lobby flourished after it was founded in 2018 but since COVID we battled never-ending turnover. Seeking inspiration, I crammed internship and volunteer fairs into my schedule and interrogated other organizations about their practices. I recruited two new staff members to fill in our gaps and then we started to see our main problem: weak teacher and community partnerships obstructing our student outreach.

Girls Lobby’s reputation was generally, “Oh, I think I’ve heard of that. I didn’t know it was still around!” So, I found any community outreach event possibly relevant to our mission and pulled up with a massive sign, flyers and, of course, candy to entice people to the table. There is an art to running a table that my introverted self essentially tripped over simply by running forward enthusiastically. At one point, I literally ran after 2022 Senate candidate Becky Edwards through a parking garage. We’d had a lovely conversation that night and I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hand her a flyer. She remembered me at a networking event five months later, an interaction I was both horrified and pleased by.

To my surprise, we started receiving emails from organizations we’d never worked with offering us space at their events. One of those emails held a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: organizing a youth advocacy panel at the 2023 Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) conference. Stepping into those halls, I felt like a child playing civic engagement dress up. My name and face were listed in the program alongside community giants like Alexis Bradley and Chanté Stutznegger from Let’s Talk, Sis, Rebekah Clark from Better Days, Shaylyn Romney Garrett from Project Reconnect and Becca Kearl from Living Room Conversations. These were organizations I’d studied and people whose speeches I’d replayed. I dreamed of Girls Lobby becoming like them and here they were offering their handouts to us, enthusing over our mission and efforts.

It wasn’t until my Winter 2023 non-profit PR class that I realized how unique Girls Lobby is, even among organizations like those MWEG highlighted. Young people below the voting age are often overlooked, despite their active and frequent participation in political conversations on social media. Without an avenue into community action, their passion for bettering the world is soiled by frustration and eventually morphs into apathy. They give up on the idea that their voice matters. Girls Lobby shows them the best way to make real change is to start advocating in their own communities.

I didn’t know anything about lobbying when I started at Girls Lobby and I had no concept of non-professionals doing it. The students who go through our programs often come from a similar background and they emerge understanding that there is more to democratic participation than voting. They write op-eds on local issues, something I only learned to do last year. Instead of feeling helpless, they share their experiences directly with legislators. Particularly for our refugee participants, these lessons help them understand their community instead of treading water in a sea of new information.

When I started public relations, I aspired to work at humanitarian non-profits using my development minor and passion for international issues. After 70 volunteer hours and over 900 in-person interactions representing Girls Lobby, I’ve realized I don’t have to go overseas to do good. This organization broadened my vision to see the civic engagement and advocacy programs working to build communities in my backyard, which is just as important as any work abroad.