For the past month and a half, progressive bloggers from all over the country have been competing for a select amount of Democracy for America scholarships to the Netroots Nation Conference in Las Vegas from July 22-25.
Netroots Nation is now in its fifth year and has provided opportunities for progressive voices to come together to exchange ideas and learn to be more effective with technology in public debate on issues. The conference has served as "an incubator" for "ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere." It has brought bloggers from all over the nation together to network, learn, and engage in discussions on how bloggers can best influence the political process in America.
Democracy for America is possibly the largest progressive political action community in America, which works to change America and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. They have graciously worked to send around 40 progressive activists to Netroots Nation for the past few years.
Some of the progressive bloggers who have won so far include: Charlotte Hill, a passionate and prominent anti-genocide activist from California who focuses on the positives to inspire change, Matt Osborne, an Alabaman native and veteran who has been proudly "ridiculing the ridiculous and afflicting the comfortable since the age of fifteen", Lee Sakellarides, who helps fight the "fierce Republican stronghold" in Indiana with her liveblog every Sunday right here on Daily Kos entitled "Press the Face", Corrine Chacon, a Chicana writer born into politics who wants to bring the online activism of Netroots Nation back to Texas to inspire change, Affad Shaikh, a Pakistani raised in Los Angeles who enjoys surfing and the outdoors when he's not writing on his blog, "This American Muslim", Miriam Zoila Perez, founder of Radical Doula.com and editor at Feministing.com who focuses on women's and LGBTQ issues, etc.
I have spent the last month working to build support for my scholarship application so that I might be awarded a chance to attend the conference. I have been following some of these bloggers who have been competing to win and made plans to meet up with a few of them when I get to the Netroots Nation conference. But, right now, it's not guaranteed that I win a spot to the conference.
I
need your support and I am prepared to win it even if you do not know who I
am.
The board awarding scholarships would like "to give them out to individuals with compelling stories, who are active online and offline, and who will thrive from their Netroots Nation experience."
Here's my story in a few sentences: I was born and raised in the red state of Indiana, a state consistently making cuts to education and promoting a dangerous business agenda as the solution to financial problems and problems caused by state government. I escaped for four years to Chicago to attend Columbia College where I studied Film/Video for four years. During those four years, I picked up skills in documentary filmmaking and also became very involved in the "Netroots" as a "trusted author" for OpEdNews.com.
I recently graduated and now I am an ardent believer in the power of creating community through blogging and social media. I understand what incorporating blogging can do for filmmaking and for efforts to create real and lasting change in this country.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
