I had the pleasure of attending the Huskies on the Hill event hosted by the ASUWB alongside ASUW and ASUWT, where our group met early at UW Bothell around 6:45am before departing by bus at 7am. We arrived at Olympia around 8:30am where we first visited the Washington Student Association (WSA) office. We learned from WSA alumni such as Adan Espino and Joel Anderson about their experiences as student lobbyists and the importance of advocating for legislation to protect students, especially bills that address immigration enforcement actions in schools and student safety.
During the day, we got to see a live Senate session, where many representatives from different districts (like Manka Dhingra and Roger Goodman from District 45!) voted on various bills. We then went to many important government buildings, such as the Legislative Building and the Temple of Justice and explored the interior of the buildings.
Additionally, we got to eat lunch, which was catered gyros and shawarma. We learned more about the Washington Legislative Internship Program during our lunch and how students can get involved.
We then visited the offices of Representative Roger Goodman and Senator Manka Dhingra, where we pushed for our support for the bills that prevent ICE from entering University of Washington campuses. Separately, we had discussions regarding schools pushing housing programs for homeless students across all the UW campuses, not just at Tacoma.
Lastly, we rallied outside the legislative buildings to advocate for policy initiatives, which made the whole experience educational and impactful! My favorite part of the rally had to be advocating for the bills I mentioned earlier and seeing Representative Osman Salahuddin support these bills!
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