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| About Us
The Roosevelt Institution The Roosevelt Institution, a student policy organization, engages new generations in a unique form of progressive activism that empowers young people as leaders and promotes their ideas for change. The Roosevelt Institution is a non-profit, non-partisan national network of campus-based student think tanks. Its members conduct policy research on the pressing political issues facing our world, from environmental protection to equality under the law to trade and taxes. The Roosevelt Institution connects the fruits of that research to the policy process, delivering sound, progressive proposals to policymakers and advocacy groups at all levels of government as it organizes, trains, and empowers the next generation of progressive leaders. The founders of the Roosevelt Institution conceived its model to train and empower students in the policymaking process and to affect real change in American politics. These founding members understood the need for a student voice in the policymaking process, from the genesis of ideas in academia to their implementation through local, state and national governments. Since its inception, the Roosevelt Institution has ballooned to almost 7,000 student members nationwide. Together, these students publish numerous policy and research journals, advance dozens of legislative goals, and hold countless meetings, panels and conferences every year. During the past four years, Roosevelt members have held meetings on Capitol Hill, testified to city councils, and reached out and worked directly in their communities. The model conceived by Roosevelt’s founding members has spawned an organization that is always growing, always evolving, and always looking towards the future.
Roosevelt's Structure Students have everything it takes to be a think tank. The Roosevelt Institution provides two levels of organizational infrastructure to make college students successful participants in the policy process. On a university campus, students gather to discuss and write on policy issues. These students are the nucleus of a Roosevelt chapter. These chapters gather interested students, recruit faculty and expert advisors, build student networks, and track influential outlets within that issue area. They guide the selection of pertinent research topics, and work to find an appropriate audience for the chapter’s work. The chapter may start a publication, a specialized journal, or meet with a staff member in a state or federal policymaker’s office. Roosevelt encourages its student members to make their class work more relevant to real-world policy and to undertake extracurricular research projects that make use of the resources available to them on campus. Within the chapter, an administrative team works closely with the policy centers to coordinate events, provide design and writing support for members’ documents, and organize professional development and training for its members. In addition, they raise funds and do outreach in their community to determine local policy needs and build networks of local contacts to help promote the work of their students on-campus. The national office connects student work to the policy process by publishing a series of journals, conducting national policy events, coordinating legislative outreach, and promoting Roosevelt fellows in the media. The national office also offers direct support to chapters through grants, regional organizers, research support, and technology. |
The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || tel (202) 833-1359 || fax (202) 833-1359 |