Do I Mention Involvement with Occupy Movement?

[dmsheldon87]

So I've been pretty active with my local Occupy for a few months now, and it's become a pretty big part of my life. I've helped plan some big actions and am on a couple committees. My question is whether or not to mention this in personal statements, on my resume, and so on. It's a contentious issue, and I'm afraid admissions boards won't be happy about it. On the other hand, I'm applying to Environmental Economics programs, and environmentalists tend to be activism-minded people. On the same hand, anecdotally it seems to me that most outside support for Occupy comes from those with higher education. I have no citation for this, just my experience talking to people in bars and stuff.

A little more about my involvment: I work on logistics stuff. My activity is mostly focused on promoting the flow and dissemination of information (e.g., creating info sheets for new-comers). I do not advocate violence in any way, I advocate for fundamental change in the relationship between business and government. I occasionally march in the street, which I suppose is against the law as written, but I believe my right to march in the street is protected by the First Amendment regardless of a permit. I have never been arrested for my actions, thought I have had a brush with a riot shield or two.

Thanks for you help!

[123student]

I personally see no reason to hide your involvement with Occupy, though I can understand why you might be hesitant to emblazon it across your SOP. I think you might strengthen your SOP by describing how your involvement with Occupy solidified your commitment to your academic discipline, and how the skills you learned and were able to exercise with Occupy pertain to skills you anticipate needing in grad school and in your intended career. It might look "gimmicky" if you were to simply tack on your involvement with Occupy, whereas if you were to describe how your involvement helped focus your academic goals and skills, you might strengthen your SOP. It's of course an option to leave it out altogether in order to be purely PC, but if from Occupy you gleaned skills which you value and which you believe will be valuable in your discipline, then it could be to your benefit to describe how these experiences shaped your development.

[Darth.Vegan]

I am wondering about this sort of thing too. I have been organizing with Occupy and even got arrested haha. But more importantly I have years of experience (10+) as an activist working on environmental and animal issues. That has played a significant role in my interest towards environmental sociology and social movements. I am not sure if mentioning this will hurt or help my application.

[rose1]

If you stick to the skills you've gained and speak in a rational way, I can't imagine you'd have any problems. Do you really want to go to a school that would reject you due to your advocacy efforts anyway? On the other hand, I wouldn't go off on a tangent about any radical political beliefs you may hold, but is Occupy really that radical?

[koolherc]

You should write about what's important to you.

In my SOP, I mentioned some interviews I did of OWSers & bystanders, but only quickly as an exemplar of some larger issue I was trying to describe. I gave it just the amount of attention that I found proportionate to my interest.

"Radical political beliefs" aren't tangential if they are actually central to your interests/beliefs/etc. If you're willing to hide your true self in your SOP, what about when you're in the program? Will you be hiding yourself then?

If a program won't accept you because of whatever reason, then you probably don't want to work there anyways. And other places that are eager to hear about that kind of stuff will fall over themselves to court you. Be yourself and you won't have to not be.

Edited March 12, 2012 by koolherc

[koolherc]

Oh, btw, nice avatar xdarthveganx! I've been reading a lot about "Red Emma" recently. I definitely plastered my SOP with all kinds of language that I wanted to be sure that a PhD program would accept me for, anarchism (as per Emma Goldman) included. I was intentionally frenetic, jumping from Shakespeare to Chomsky to Daoism with reckless abandon.

Edit: it worked pretty well

Edited March 12, 2012 by koolherc