By Henry Walther

In early spring of 2018, as I walked across Bruff quad, my friend Stefan Suazo stopped me and suggested one of the craziest ideas I’d ever heard.

“Henry, I’m going to run for school board. You want in? I’m going to need a campaign manager.” Like myself, Stefan was a freshman at Tulane, just a few months passed his 19th birthday. His background was compelling. The son of immigrants, one a school teacher, Stefan had attended a magnet school on the West Bank and saw firsthand the benefits that robust public school education could provide.

I’d worked on campaigns before, but managing one on my own? That would require a team of people I could truly depend on. Luckily I knew just where to turn: AKPsi.

Within a day of asking AKPsi for help, I had almost a dozen brothers reach out offering to help in whatever way they could. Since AKPsi welcomes students of all majors, I was able to place brothers into roles that were tailored to their unique strengths.

Need a communications director? Gigi is an English major with a gift for messaging. What about the financial side of the campaign? Maddie combined her knowledge of business with her experience on a congressional race to put together a fundraiser that raised over $5,000. After interning at the state department, my big, Joseph, helped us design education policy that he ultimately pitched to the school district’s superintendent. Jenny, an aspiring teacher from the West Bank, was able to help with community outreach. Oliver became our field director, using his background in marketing and business to pitch our candidate to the voters.

Ultimately, we lost the runoff election by only one vote, but without my brothers working on the campaign, we could have lost by thousands. There is no other organization on campus with the breadth of interests, the depth of talent and the passion that AKPsi has, and there is no other organization that I know has my back as much as AKPsi.