From Advocacy Intern to State Legislator: Q&A With Rep. Kevin Windham

Kevin Windham, a former advocacy intern for The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, was elected to his first two-year term in the Missouri House of Representatives in November 2018. He represents the state’s 85th district and is vice-chair of the Democratic Caucus.

The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, an NCAN member, is a college access nonprofit that "opens doors to higher education through direct assistance programs for students and through active participation in many aspects of the St. Louis regional community."

NCAN spoke with Rep. Windham about his time with The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, how the support from the organization has affected his path, and what he is up to now. The following is a summary of that conversation.

What did your advocacy intern role at The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis entail, and how has it influenced the work you do today?

Each one of the foundation’s interns had a policy area of interest. At the foundation, the interns researched their topic for a semester or an entire year. My area of policy interest was the state of Missouri’s A+ Scholarship Program.

The A+ Scholarship Program is a provider of scholarship funds to eligible graduates of designated high schools who attend a participating public community college, vocational/technical school, or certain private two-year vocational/technical schools. The program is very similar to many other states’ promise programs where students are required to maintain a specific GPA and meet certain requirements in order to be granted the scholarship award.

I found that the A+ program was inherently inequitable in how it was drafted. The program gives you two free years of community college if you have a minimum of a 2.5 GPA. Along with the GPA requirement, attendance, volunteer hours, and record of citizenship, are also some other requirements that need to be met by students.

[For more, read the recent Kansas City Star article: "Missouri gives millions in college aid, but little goes to KC students needing it most."]

Why were you drawn to advocacy?

A few different things drew me to advocacy. My first time tracking a bill was at the age of 15 when my dad went to jail. In 2014, Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson. I began seeing and paying attention to a lot of the different things that the media was portraying. What interested me the most was some of the statistics that the media would disseminate on how the city of Ferguson was a diverse community but didn’t have a very diverse police force. I connected the dots, and it showed me that policy had an everyday effect on people.

When thinking about advocacy and policy work, I always thought that I would be in the background working solely on policy and on constituent services. I joined a few different leadership programs, worked for Sen. Claire McCaskill in Washington, D.C. for a while, and then worked in her St. Louis office.

“I thought to myself: If not me, then who? And if not now, then when? So I ran for office.”

How did The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis program support you when you were a student? Is there a specific story or memory that stands out?

I specifically remember the first Active Advocacy Coalition conference I attended. Being in a room full of like-minded folks, especially young folks that pretty much had the same mission.

Do you have any advice for students?

Whether it be at a large- or medium-sized college, really define your own path. Make sure that you sharpen your skills for when you need them. And when you do need your skills, make sure that you’re ready to step up and go through whatever you have to go through once your number is called.

What is your top priority now that you are a legislator?

Naturally, one of my top priorities is increasing access to higher education, whether that’s due to financial or geographic burdens, or any number of other socioeconomic factors. Some other topics I'd like to focus on are community revitalization and criminal justice reform.

From your experience, how can constituents be more effective when they speak to their representatives?

Constituents should be aware of the different factors in an individual legislator’s district. For example, the demographics in the district, how much a legislator won by in the last election, or some of the legislative key issues. Also, it is extremely important that constituents understand the legislative process because it is not always a simple process. They should also keep in mind the different levels of government, local, state, and federal. Lastly, but not least, constituents need to understand that all of those representatives on those various levels work for you as a constituent.

Thank you to Rep. Windham for his time and responses. And thank you to The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis for its NCAN membership.

(Photo courtesy of Rep. Windham)