Sam Miller was in her senior year government class when it all clicked.
The negative view Miller had of the government changed after she discovered she could be an advocate for herself and for people in similar situations. Miller grew up in Appalachia, and she never understood how the vote of someone who had hundreds of thousands more dollars than her family could suddenly take their benefits away.
“That always seemed so wrong to me, and I never understood it until I took government,” Miller, who is from Somerset, said. “It’s because they don’t have people advocating for them. ... I really thought, ‘why not be that advocate?’ ”
Miller, who serves on The Post Publishing Board, recently became the vice president of College Democrats of Ohio, and she will be next year’s at-large senator for Ohio University Student Senate.
As vice president of College Democrats of Ohio, Miller hopes to hold a monthly call with all the individual chapters across the state and to initiate a diversity plan for the organization. Additionally, she wants to help hold the executive board more accountable.
Miller also hopes to look at the diversity in each chapter. She would like to see all different demographics from first-generation students to people of color take part in College Democrats.
“If we’re going to be the party that stands for minorities, we need to be representing those minorities in our organizations,” Miller said. “We can’t just run the conversations without their input. We want to find ways … to make sure that their voices are heard and their issues are heard.”
Anthony Eliopoulos, a junior studying political science and strategic communication, also won a position on the executive board. He will serve as the communications director and is excited to work with all other chapters.
“I also want College Democrats of Ohio to be a lot more active on social media,” he said in an email. “I plan to produce videos that will highlight what we are doing as college democrats and how we feel about certain topics.”
Miller and Eliopoulos will also be at-large senators for Student Senate. Since she one day hopes to hold public office, Miller said running for Student Senate was a good way to learn about campaigning and elections.
Landen Lama, next year’s Student Senate president, contacted Miller to run for the position.
“She has a good outreach base, and that’s something we wanted,” Lama said. “Plus, Sam was the PR director for senate last year, so I knew her work ethic and everything like that. I knew she’d be good for the job.”
Miller said she was skeptical about running at first due to Student Senate's reputation, but she hopes to help change that by letting more people know about the work they’re doing.
“I think there’s, like, a bad image of Student Senate sometimes where people think they are internally focused, and they don’t do a lot of stuff for students,” Miller said. “The more I learned about the organization, the more I realized there’s so much they do. They don’t get a lot of credit for it.”
Going into her senior year, Miller hopes she can stay busy and be involved. She plans to be a general member of OU College Democrats and maybe help out with a governor campaign. She said she enjoys doing all those things.
“I keep learning new things and new perspectives and issues I care about to the point that it’s basically encompassed my entire life,” Miller said. “I can’t go back now. I’m too invested.”
