OSEPI, Ohio Student Education Policy Institute, is a project for college students to be involved in real world legislative processes in educational policy. OCAN, Ohio College Access Network, organizes this institute and promotes discussion on college and career readiness in Ohio. OSEPI is a way for highly motivated college students to engage their ideas and proposals with Ohio legislature, and develop an effective pipeline of communication from public universities to Ohio Congress.
My OSEPI journey began shortly after I completed the Honors seminar Save Our Schools! I was recommended by my professor, Dr. Sarah Stitzlein, to join the group and was thrilled to be part of such an exciting experience. The UC OSEPI Team traveled to Columbus in January for the first event of the season. At the first event, we were introduced to OCAN as well as The Ohio State University and University of Akron students along with their advisors. During this time, OCAN explained that over the next three months we would be developing, researching, and ultimately creating a proposal on a policy for the Ohio Senate Education Committee, and be testifying on the floor of the Senate. OCAN also told us that we would be participating in Webinars to gain knowledge on legislative processes and how to present testimonies. Over the next three months, our team did a great deal of critical thinking, researching, and ed speak. Our first idea was to focus on the School-to-Prison Pipeline, and the effects it is having on minority and low-income community students in Ohio (see here for more info). After finding numerous statistics, case studies, and discussing the issue with community members and OCAN, we decided we needed to narrow our focus for the sake of policy. In the case studies we were researching, often we found stories where students were getting suspended for offenses such as biting their breakfast food into the shape of a gun. After looking at the language of zero-tolerance policy in Ohio, our team decided that the wording is confusing and unclear in the Ohio Revised Code, currently. We began to develop research and ideas as to how the language could be better developed for teachers and administrators to utilize. Click here to see our one page proposal to the Ohio Senate Education Committee. After we had composed our one pager and testimony, we headed to Columbus for the two day OSEPI summit. The first day of the summit was spent primarily learning what testifying would be like, doing mock presentations, asking questions, and networking with the other colleges. Being the underdogs or odd man out, our team was actually the most prepared and most respected. It was life changing to be able to work and collaborate with students from different colleges and different majors about education. After discussing our topics with the other colleges, we headed to the Buckeye Grill to meet with lobbyists and important OCAN contacts. The second day of the summit was spent having breakfast with policy groups in Columbus, fine tuning our presentations, and listening to a panel of Representatives and Ohio Board of Regents members until it was time to move to the Statehouse. At the Statehouse, we were formally introduced in front of the Senate and House of representatives, a very cool experience! Finally, at the end of the day, it was time to testify. After listening to the third hearing on SB 171, the OSEPI groups presented our testimonies. As the primary delegate from our group, I read the testimony to the senators and my peer, Cristina, answered their questions. After hearing our testimony, Madame Chair, Senator Lehner, recognized us for being future educators who are interested in policy and having our voice be heard. Click here to read our testimony for the Ohio Senate Education Committee. OSEPI is an experience I will never forget and I hope to get involved in the future. The most valuable part of the experience for me was actually not testifying in front of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, but the critical thinking and conversations I had with my team and the teams from OSU and Akron. The Akron team was particularly blown away by our presentation and preparation and sought our help during the summit. As political science majors, they were very interested that we are education majors who are involved in politics and they saw us as being very intelligent and resourceful. Overall, OSEPI was a great professional development experience and allowed me to accomplish one of my personal goals: being an active activist for educational change in Ohio. In my future classrooms, I can use OSEPI as inspiration to tell my students how they can have a voice in government.
Please enjoy the slideshow below, featuring photos from the two day OSEPI Summit in Columbus, Ohio!
For more information on OSEPI and my journey, pop over to the "OSEPI Blog" tab! View my final reflective essay here.