Alumni Update: Texas Civic Ambassadors

Each year, New Politics Forum staff select 30 student leaders from across the state to take part in our Texas Civic Ambassadors program. This year-long, service-centric program challenges our students to better their community through civics-oriented projects that they design with staff guidance. Our Civic Ambassadors attend a series of trainings, workshops, and ongoing learning opportunities throughout their year of service and channel the lessons they learn into action via their projects. While we couldn’t be prouder of this cohort and what they’ve accomplished, we’re dedicating this blog post to our alumni.

For this post, we’ll profile a select few Ambassador alumni from the 2019/2020 cohort and discuss what they are up to now. Please know that there are hundreds of Civic Ambassadors that we would love to highlight, we simply don’t have enough time or space to give them the credit and coverage they deserve, but stay tuned for future posts!

Arrian Ebrahimi spent his Ambassadorship focused on highlighting the importance of judicial elections in Texas. His Ambassadorship culminated with a panel discussion which was viewed by over 200 students, lawyers, and staffers from across Texas. Since graduating from St. Edward’s University last year, Arrian has been doing government affairs in DC at the Semiconductor Industry Association where he first became interested in U.S.-China relations. We’re excited to share that he has been accepted to the Yenching Scholars program at Peking University in Beijing, where he will start a Master of Economics in China Studies this fall. Arrian has also been accepted to the Georgetown University Law Center, where he will begin a JD after his studies at Peking University.

Greg Norwood spent his time as a Texas Civic Ambassador working to increase voter participation in student spaces around Houston, Texas. In 2020, Greg organized an extremely successful March to the Polls where he led over 180 community members to vote. He went on to earn a degree from the University of Houston and began teaching in the Houston Independent School District in the Fall of 2020. After a full year teaching, Greg transitioned to work with the policy advocacy nonprofit Young Invincibles where he currently serves as an Organizing Manager. Greg is passing the lessons he learned as a Civic Ambassador forward at Young Invincibles. He works to empower students to advocate for policy change on the local, state, and national level in his current position.

During her time as an Ambassador, Alexis Tatum worked to increase media literacy among high school students in her hometown of Marshall, Texas. Alexis was ready to begin her week-long series when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Fortunately, we had an opportunity for Alexis to put her media literacy research to work! Alexis served as moderator for an Annette Strauss Institute sponsored LBJ In the Arena event with New York Times and Washington Post journalist Erin Giger Smith. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020, Alexis went on to work as a Communications Analyst at Goldman Sachs and was recently accepted to the University of California Berkeley School of Law. She plans to begin classes in the Fall of 2022.

We’re so excited for Alexis, Arrian, and Greg. But, know that they are far from the only alumni who are continuing to serve as leaders in their communities. We’re excited for  all of the incredible things our alumni have accomplished and will accomplish. We’re incredibly proud of them and cannot wait to sing their praises the next opportunity we get!