When getting involved on campus, age is but a number

The author, Niki Viradia (background), and Jeanna Young founded The Red and White Project at North Carolina State University.

It was June 6 at 9:15 p.m. when I received a concerned email from another university organization asking for a phone conference. As one of the founders of The Red and White Project, a charity-based organization from North Carolina State University, I was not expecting such a panicked and brooding response merely 23 minutes after sending an initial email. While most underclassmen spend their summers exploring foreign countries or trying to scrape together cash from a job, I have spent mine in class and sending out hundreds of emails, all of which to promote my organization and to enhance our upcoming event.

When The Red and White Project was dreamt up on the lawn of NC State on a lazy spring afternoon, the other co-founder, Jeanna Young, and I merely sought to promote the charity Care USA, which serves to help women in developing countries obtain the proper resources and aid to survive, through a concert featuring the prominent a cappella group, Penn Masala. As rising sophomores, we lacked the expertise in event planning and were extremely idealistic considering our organization had a non-existent budget.

When we engaged in our venture, we decided to reach out to a local South-Asian organization at our university as one of our first maneuvers. Optimistically and somewhat naively continuing our efforts, we notified the nearby universities’ related groups of our event, and 23 minutes later, we received that shocked and somewhat patronizing email. We were being told to cease and desist any furthering of our event.

Since we were a young organization, since we didn’t have 15 years of annual shows under our belt and since the other organization claimed that they saw Penn Masala first, they felt that they had the right to tell us to step down. We were being bullied in college. We were the nerdy little kids with glasses, and they were the cool older kids who jeered at us. The intimidation factor was so ominous that we actually were concerned for the safety of our event. We had no doubts in continuing our efforts, but we definitely had to rethink our strategy before proceeding.

While we knew that our organization lacked the size of our oppressor, we also knew that our relationship with Penn Masala, established through Tumblr out of sheer luck, could be used to our advantage. After a few more derisive phone calls and emails, the last of which was received on June 16, we began to disregard the jibes thrown at us from all tertiary parties. Although our executive board contained no one over the age of 19, we knew we had the ability to contend with more pronounced groups at the college level because we had the drive and the motivation to promote our organization, and we definitely did not see the need to be demoralized by “15 years of experience.”

When we first began The Red and White Project, we truly had no clue as to what we would be dealing with. We were dreamers. We credulously overlooked any politics involved in the process. In retrospect, perhaps it was our idealism that helped us get to where we are today.

As incoming freshmen and underclassmen, it is easy to be intimidated by the older students and the large campus, but it shouldn’t act as a deterrent in your future and place on campus. When the freshmen orientation leaders encouraged involvement in organizations and activities, they weren’t just getting paid to tell you so. Involvement for us meant resolving against the opposition to make the first goal of The Red and White Project a reality, which will happen this fall. Involvement for you could be to join a team or start a club — whatever it is, make sure that you take confidence in the fact that age truly is just a number and it should not stop you in pursuing your collegiate goals.

More information about The Red and White Project: http://theredandwhiteproject.tumblr.com