On Thursday January 29th, fifty-some students showed up in the Campus Center Theater to hear Dr. Tina Zappile, Prof. Michael Busler, Prof. Erdem Aktug, and myself kick-off the Stockton campaign! Thanks to the Sustainability Trust and Economics Society, we were able to gather three experts on one stage to talk about the debt and its major impact on US millennials in the near future. Dr. Z explained to us what a twin-deficit is, and given her background in International Relations, compared and contrasted the US national debt with other countries. Prof. Aktug explained that although 18 trillion is a very massive figure, the real problem is the Debt-to-GDP ratio. Professor Busler brought it home with how it relates to us as a generation and why Up to Us is such an important campaign!

As the Stockton team leader, I welcomed all in attendance and gave everyone a brief overview of our future events and what Up to Us is about! The stress has started to kick in, but God knows how exhausted we will all be by Feb. 20, so stay tuned to find out more!

The Stockton Up to Us team for 2014-2015 was picked out of the Stockton Student Senate, early in September. At the time, I knew Louis, Victoria, Brad, and Maryam on a professional level. Then Up to Us happened. It is just amazing how a campaign about the national debt brought five minds to unite and become much more than just “professional acquaintances.” I am lucky to have a team like I do now and I can’t wait to see how we execute the rest of our campaign in the next couple of weeks!