The saying goes, “everyone has the same 24 hours in a day.” While this is true, there are some who truly spend their days making the most of every opportunity, in an effort to be involved and help others — adding studies and work on top of that.
Meet Swarnima Kain, a doctoral student in Philosophy. Originally from New Delhi, India, Kain is the President of UNL’s Young Democrats (YD), where she is in charge of the organization’s outreach both on and off campus. To use up more of those 24 hours — Kain is also a member of the National Honor Society’s Phi Sigma Pi fraternity, where she is involved in many philanthropic initiatives. More hours include being the graduate senator of ASUN, the student government association at UNL. Whew! With all of the accolades out of the way, Kain spoke about her journey to the U.S., how she got involved in American politics, and her work on and off campus as YD President.
What made you want to move to the U.S. to come and study?
“I originally applied to five universities, and most of them were master’s programs, and I already had my masters degree. UNL’s offer was for the PhD program in Philosophy, so I took that opportunity and moved to the U.S. in the summer of 2021.”
What is your research focus?
“My research focus is consciousness for my dissertation. My topic is titled, ‘Is AI Conscious?’”
How did you find moving to the U.S.?
“I actually think I settled down pretty quickly, because I just started interacting with people right away. I’m an extrovert, so I made friends quickly and I was living on-campus in the Courtyards. It was the COVID period, but it just made everyone talk to each other more.”
What made you interested in American politics?
“2021 was an interesting year still dealing with COVID and what was going on in the U.S., so I just spent my first year just reading .. a lot. My RA happened to be the President of the UNL Young Republicans club, and he let me sit in with his organization, where I attended for about two or three weeks. While I was interested in learning about different U.S. viewpoints, it didn’t personally align with my belief systems or values, so I started attending Young Democrats meetings instead. At my first meeting, Patty Pansing Brooks was there, and she was running in the special election for congress. I met with her after the meeting, and something just clicked for me. I met a lot of people who had the same values and I felt more comfortable going to these meetings and wanting to help and be part of this organization. I got to know former president Larrisa Schultz, and after a while it was kind of like a recruitment. She was so friendly that we just became friends, and then when the VP position opened up in the organization, I ran, got elected, then ran for President in the next election.”
What are some of YD’s goals?
“Our main objective is to not tell people what to do. We always want to hear other people’s input and listen to students’ opinions on how to execute, so we can have larger engagement. That was my first goal when I was elected President — to increase engagement. We are the biggest chapter on campus right now, and we have continued to grow — especially after the presidential candidate change this summer. With that, we’ve seen a lot of momentum from younger people, and our social media has grown a lot as well.
What are some of the things you put on social media?
“Our social media is really active! We post our weekly events and we make sure that we are always calling in speakers, and letting people know that certain speakers in the community are coming to the event, so that people get more motivated to participate. Networking with people could open up certain opportunities for those interested in looking for jobs like legislative aides, pages, etc.”
You are very active in U.S. politics, but you yourself can’t vote…
“So.. I get this question asked a lot. I’m not a citizen, so I don’t have the right to vote, but I still get to see the changes happening, and it definitely affects me and all international students who are living in the U.S. A small example would be me paying my rent. Am I a citizen? No, but I still need to pay rent here, I still need to abide by U.S. laws while I’m living here. So many things that happen politically in the U.S. still affect my day to day life living here. If I can be a voice for change, why not? My vote doesn’t count, but my voice will count.”
What would you say to international students who want to get involved but they might feel like there’s no reason to because they can’t vote?
“Well, other than what I said about myself getting involved, we have club enrollment fairs at UNL — and everyone from domestic and international students help out with that. So when international students come to our booth and say, ‘Oh, we can’t vote,’ I tell them — we are still affected by immigration issues, university issues, and so many other issues that still affect us, whether we can vote or not. If you get stuck in that bubble of ‘I can’t vote,’ you won’t ever feel like you can elicit change. You can still learn and talk to people, maybe convince people that can vote to be involved with you.”
What about those who want to be involved but don’t want to get “too political?”
If you want to attend our events, you can always ask not to get your picture taken, for one. With that, if you want to go canvassing and help volunteer that way, that’s not necessarily partisan either. You also don’t have to share anything on social media if you’re not comfortable. There are a lot of people that don’t want to be used as marketing tools for political campaigns on either side, but they can canvas and be on the sidelines if they want to! The work is just as important as being front and center.”
What do you want people to know the most about what you do as UNL YD President?
“I’m not trying to convince anyone to change their political stance or points of view. It’s always better to listen to others, and be involved in causes you believe in.”