Delran resident and Rutgers University student Samantha Booth has been on a mission for the last few years advocating for student financial aid. Now, after taking a trip to Washington, D.C., to speak with federal legislators for the third time, her experiences have humbled her and changed the way she views the political process.
Booth began her college career by taking a few intro-level political classes, something that has always fascinated her. It eventually led Booth to majoring in political science with a minor in public policy and economics. As a sophomore, Booth was involved in student government where she saw a presentation from the Rutgers Department of Federal Relations. It discussed Student Advocacy Day and thought it was important for its representatives to hear from students. With this being this first opportunity to get involved, Booth jumped at the chance to advocate for something that was close to her heart,
“The experience was very humbling,” said Booth.”I went for the people who experienced student federal financial aid and they shared stories, such as first-generation students not having enough money to attend college. Hearing those stories and seeing those people be able to receive an education is very humbling. It also makes me feel more engaged in the political system because I’m going and actually advocating for something on behalf of other people.”
Despite each trip to Washington, D.C., being based around advocating for financial aid, there’s always a different topic on the table, and Booth said each time is productive. The Rutgers student advocates don’t receive much pushback and the representatives are typically supportive of the students’ ideas.
“It varies every year,” said Booth. ”In the past, we were specifically asking for full-year Pell Grants because before that they were administered on a semester basis. This year, we were focused on asking for continuation for all different types of financial aid programs, like Pell Grants, work study, subsidized and unsubsidized loans. We did that because each year when they talk about the budget, they talk about cuts to those programs.”
While Booth is slated to graduate from Rutgers this May with honors, her path in politics is not set in stone, but higher education policy will always be something Booth will be interested in, especially as college becomes more expensive. Booth believes that since financial aid is important to a lot of people, it’s important for people to not be intimidated or afraid of their politicians because it’s easy to get involved and the politicians always want to listen.
“I think it made me more aware of how the process works,” said Booth. “The way politicians go about their day and how they learn about the issues that they’re eventually going to vote on, if you’re not really involved it can seem like a strange process. However, going down and interacting opened my eyes to that process and made me more aware in general what kind of information they’re looking for.”
