You know as well as I do that the best grassroots work doesn’t come from politicians, or from talking heads or even from grassroots organizations. It comes from you and everyone else who takes time out of their day and fights for what’s right. Because I’m always looking to activists for my inspiration, I love hearing about and meeting the people who fight the fight.
That’s why I love Netroots Nation. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean. Of course the panels are cool, and the speakers are great, and lots of different progressive organizations are represented. But for me, it’s about meeting people in the hallways, the social events, the meals... the bars.
Unfortunately, not everyone who is fighting the good fight can make it to Netroots Nation. So three weeks ago, DFA and America’s Voice launched our 2011 Netroots Nation Scholarship Competition. Since then, 170 outstanding bloggers and activists have applied.
I am absolutely thrilled to introduce you to the twenty winners from Round One. It may sound trite to say that we had an incredibly talented pool of applicants, but this time it’s actually an understatement.
Every one of the 170 applicants in Round One has a unique perspective that I would have loved to bring to NN11. Picking just one-tenth of them was incredibly difficult.
We looked at every applicants’ answers (170 applicants, 10-15 answers each), we worked to figure out what was missing from the last few years, we asked what they would bring to NN11 -- and what they want to get out of it.
One of the winners, Tia Stanley, a young activist from Maryland, wrote “I plan to run for Maryland State Delegate in the 2014 election. I am absolutely certain that I can take the things I learn at the Netroots Nation conference (including strategies and things that I will bring back from the training sessions) to make this county better...one district at a time.”
I liked that: Building a strong progressive movement, one district at a time.
The group includes both online and off-line activists -- people like Joe Rhymer from Tennessee who describes himself as, “An Organizer working within the intersections of Faith, Equality, Race and Class Issues to make the world a better place in Rural Tennessee” and Sue Kirby in Massachusetts who is “a life-long labor and community Activist.”
The winners include a “Full-time progressive & part-time tea enthusiast,” (Becca Russell-Einhorn), “A lippy, liberal woman in a very red, very patriarchal state,” (Galumphix) and “a dreamer waiting for a green light at the intersection of Struggle and Hope” (Diego Sepulveda).
And, of course, we have the winners selected directly by the Kos, DFA, and greater blogging community: Zahra Billo, Teacherken and Blue Gal. Your votes ensured their ticket, and greatly influenced the judging throughout the process.
To see the full list of winners click here.
You can still be part of this. Round Two kicks off today. Everyone applying for the first round is still eligible for the second round (which is good because I liked so many of them) and we’re expecting a big batch of new applicants -- It's going to be incredibly difficult to pick the Round Two winners, but if we raise enough money we can send more. You can chip in now to help us send more outstanding scholars.
Or if you want to join me in Minneapolis, you can apply for your own Netroots Nation Scholarship.
I can’t wait to meet all of these rock star activists in Minneapolis and to read more applications in Round Two.