There’s a new club in town, which will allow students to make their voices heard and to engage in pressing real-world issues. Founded by Chandra Chouhan (‘20), Kevin Jacobson (‘19), and Ananya Rajesh (‘20), along with Mr. Keir as the advisor, the High School Democrats of Wisconsin is a club that is devoted to getting students more involved politics – and not just from a democratic point of view.

When asked about the origins of this new club, Chouhan said that “it all started in AP Seminar, when I asked Kevin, ‘hey, do you want to start this club,’ because in light of the 2016 election and what’s been going on in terms of national administration and in our country, we wanted to bring more people to school who identified with the ideals of the Democratic party. We want to bring more involvement in the community and the general area, so we started this to do more work for the community.” Jacobson agreed with Chouhan and immediately gelled with her proposal: “I already knew of some groups like the Democrats of Waukesha, and I just wanted to bring that to a high school level.” At such a level, after all, people will be able to look at more pieces of the picture instead of having only a myopic view of what they see on the news or hear on the streets.

According to Chouhan, there are fourteen high school chapters of the Democratic party, but Brookfield is lacking; this is also another reason for Jacobson and Chouhan to open that branch.

As for looking towards the future, the sky’s the limit. Jacobson commented point-blank that “the Waukesha county and the surrounding areas are inherently Republican, and we know that a lot of students probably don’t agree with their parents views, and don’t have anywhere where they can express themselves. We just want to offer them that opportunity.” Chouhan (‘20) also mentioned that “the county branch of our club has a lot of community events that we’re hoping to eventually be a part of and send people to volunteer at.”

Since the High School Democrats of Wisconsin is inherently a political club, one can’t help but ask a few uncomfortable questions. The name of the club has Democrats in the title, after all. Where did all of the Republicans go? Chouhan and Jacobson, however, seem to have already solved that problem. “We had actually talked to Republicans in our school about starting a Republican equivalent, and we don’t intend to ty to push for the support of the Democratic party at all, it’s just to bring people who are interested and who want to be more aware. We don’t intend to campaign for any party or to change anyone’s views. It’s just to get people involved.” The Republican equivalent that Chouhan mentioned, by the way, was supposed to be introduced at the same time as the Democrats of Wisconsin. The Democrats just got around to starting their club sooner. While there may be a imbalance in the political clubs at Central, it (hopefully) won’t be for long.

If the Republican branch ever does come into existence, Jacobson (‘19) hopes that there is amiable competitiveness and understanding between both clubs. As a part of the club’s potential future, Jacobson and Chouhan were looking towards joint meetings with the Republican club to have political discussions on current events. By approaching adversarial feelings in this manner, the Young Democrats of Wisconsin hope to educate other people on the issues that they speak about – issues that will still be tinged with politics, but will also offer them a broader view of the world.

At the very least, everyone can agree on the fact that voters should always be as informed as possible, whether they’re a Republican or a Democrat (or somewhere in between).