Each month for our Progressive Focus newsletter, we highlight the amazing work of a student activist.  You can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.

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Rachel Fauber
Public Relations and Environmental Studies
Towson University

" I chose to be arrested in a blockade of Congressman Boucher’s office because he has consistently neglected his constituents who want a clean and just energy economy. "

Organizations Involved with:
Towson Energy Activists, Maryland Student Climate Coalition, Baltimore Rising Tide.

How did you become politicized? What got you to where you are today?
When I started at Towson University I joined the group Towson Energy Activists (TEA) knowing I liked learning about environmental issues and wanting to meet people. What I didn’t know when I joined is that I would soon be working with people I now consider to be the best student organizers in the nation. The leaders of TEA took me under their wing and taught me that making environmental change wasn’t just about recycling programs or stream clean up, but about making broad and bold changes to policies, legislation, and systems through strategic targets and tactics.

How did you get involved with Campus Progress?
About two years ago this fall, TEA helped to form the Maryland Student Climate Coalition, a network of students and young people across the state working for strong climate change policy on local, state, and federal levels. We connected with Campus Progress around a campaign we were running called PowerVote, working to gather the pledges of a million young people across the nation to promise to vote for a climate champion in the 2008 presidential election. Campus Progress supported us with an action grant, and advice and help from their staff which allowed us to hold events on our campus and talk about green jobs, a new economy, environmental justice, and many other things.

You were recently arrested during an action for climate justice against Congressman Boucher. What pushed you to put yourself on the line? (Click here to see a video of this action.)
I personally take direct action and civil disobedience very seriously and only use these tactics after other measures of pressure have been tried. I chose to be arrested in a blockade of Congressman Boucher’s office because he has consistently neglected his constituents who want a clean and just energy economy. He has accepted approximately $176,000 in campaign contributions from the coal industry and has almost single-handedly gutted the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009. Rick Boucher continues to manipulate the bill to favor the coal industry, has allotted 10 billion dollars in the next ten years in the ACES Act to develop carbon storage, but has not once looked into safe, clean, renewable energy. After attempting to use meetings to lobby Congressman Boucher, I felt it was time to increase the pressure and block his door, forcing him to spend at least one day listening to the American people and not Big Coal’s lobbyists.

In your experience as a statewide leader in Maryland, do you feel that young people are being effective in advocating for a clean and just economy?
Not only do I think young people can make concrete changes toward a clean and just economy, I know it! In the University of Maryland system alone, students got each of the presidents of their universities to sign the President’s Climate Commitment, collected 12,000 signatures of support from other students, and got the system of schools to commit to a carbon neutrality plan. As we saw in this last election, students and young people have huge power and numbers when it comes to voting for what we believe in.

What are your next steps? What's next for you in terms of activism or personal goals?
In the last two years, Maryland Students have tackled campus issues, passed state climate legislations, and rallied together around the presidential election. Now it is time to pass a progressive and strong piece of federal climate change legislation. I want to see Maryland students lead the way in helping pass a strong version of the ACES Act of 2009 and be part of the international climate negotiations. It is my personal goal to try and make it to Copenhagen in December for the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference and represent the young people in Maryland and the United States.

Any words of advice for young progressives?
I really feel strongly that no goal, no project and no campaign is impossible. We can make any change we want if we set realistic goals, target the right individuals, and use the right tactics and strategies. I think it’s so important to remain flexible, creative, and energized about the future we want, the changes we need to make, and how we can get there!