Contemporary Change Agent

At only 23 years of age Andrew Gillum “became the youngest person ever elected to the Tallahassee City Commission” (TalGov.com, 2).  Andrew Gillum was born in Miami, Florida in July of 1979; he was the fifth of seven children (TalGov.com).  Since a young age, even younger than 23 he has always been in the eye and attention of being recognized as someone who is creating change, and doing for others.  He graduated from high school in 1998 as the student body president and right after graduating he was awarded the “Person of the Year” award by the Gainesville Sun (Gainesville city’s local newspaper).  Gillum was known for inspiring people and always thinking politically and for change.   Gillum went on to college and attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), “where he became the president of the Student Government Association and also a member of the university’s Board of Trustees” (Scott, C., 2010). 

The "Historic March on Tallahassee"

Now let’s think back to 2000, when George W. Bush was running for President of the United States and his brother Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida, when the election came in November and after votes were in there was a big debate about if the brother, Jed Bush, had something to do with the extremely high votes in Florida, for his brother, George W. Bush.  Besides that big debate going on Gillum was a member of the people who took part in the “historic March on Tallahassee in protest of Governor Jeb Bush’s executive order to abolish affirmative action in state university admission and state contracting” (TalGov.com).  Gillum was one of the people who addressed the election violation in Florida and who organized the march that took place in Florida.  Gillum stood up for what he believed in and he sure enough got enough believers and followers to follow him and create a riot that received attention.  He was recognized for his braveness and advocacy, he was praised by being recognized as a top student leader in the country by the Center of Policy Alternatives (TalGov.com).  Gillum always strived for change on a macro level; he always focused on helping out on more than just his city issues but more of a states issue. 

In 2002 while still in college the commissioners in Florida were recognizing him, and at this point he was offered and took the position at the Florida Field Organizer as the Field Organizer with People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF).  That same yea Gillum led the largest get-out-the-vote campaign in Florida’s history.  Get out the vote is a campaign to try and get voting numbers to increase and to get more people involved in what happens to them and their society.  “In 2003, the Florida Democratic Party recruited Gillum” (TalGov.com) and it’s crazy how a young, black, yet to graduate college student is sought out to become a director for something the state is doing.  This just goes to show that age and race do not stand against you if you strive to create change and overcome obstacles.

Besides making change at a state level Gillum did a lot of his community.  He took part in “the Nims Middle School Digital Harmony Pilot Program, the Landlord Tenant Mediation Program, the Code Enforcement Amnesty Program, and the creation of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Park” (PFAW.org).  On a larger scale he founded the PFAWF Young Elected Officials program, which helps to unite elected officials who are 35 years old and under (PFAW.org) is a network and system that allows the people to connect and communicate between each other and bounce off ideas.  Because of Gillum being involved with PFAWF he has helped the program to evolve and is now a national network that now links all these young elected officials together, which helps to create better, well rounded policies.  Besides all the local organizations he’s involved with he also is “on the Board of Directors for The Schott Foundation for Public Education in Cambridge, MA, and the Black Youth Vote Coalition… in Washington, DC” (TalGov.com).  Most of the projects that Gillum got involved in involved getting people involved and taking action within their community, in his later works he really started to think and work with teens in an underserved and overlooked community.  For example, the Nims Middle School Digital Harmony Initiative is/was a program created to give a school that was underserved more technology and things that regular schools had but this school didn’t.  The Nims school was a failing school and had nothing technological in it and the students were failing almost all around academically.  The program was to bring technology into the school and giving and putting computer into the homes of the students, who were in the sixth grade and went to this school, the goal of this was to see how technology makes a difference in a child’s academic progress and skills (nimstech…).  The school was one of many successes Gillam was involved in.  His contributions continue to grow since he is still in a seat in Florida and that I last read in 2010 was running to become the head of Florida’s Democratic Party.