Left-to-right: Abby Pressimone (’17); Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK;
and Caroline McCarthy ('16)
This summer, two Cabrini students, Abby Pressimone (’17) and Caroline McCarthy (’16), joined peers from nine other colleges and universities who worked in the nation’s capital with lobbyists, field organizers, and other progressive Catholic leaders to build their congressional lobbying, organizing, and advocacy skills.
Cabrini teamed up with NETWORK Education Program in Washington, D.C., for their first Justice Advocacy Week, an intensive, four-day introduction to economic justice and advocacy through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.
NETWORK Education Program is a partner of NETWORK, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. All participating students had the opportunity to receive academic credit through Cabrini College that could then transfer to their respective institutions.
For Pressimone, who majors in both American studies and religious studies, with a minor in social justice, the most profound impact from Justice Advocacy Week was feeling empowered.
“A regular, everyday human being like me can march right onto Capitol Hill and express my concerns,” Pressimone said. “It doesn't even matter that some of the Senators or Representatives will disagree with what I believe. I am still able to speak with them.”
The training for these budding social justice leaders culminated with students making lobbying trips to the offices of elected officials from their own state to advocate for raising the national minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
Pressimone lobbied the offices of Senators Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa. Students tweeted about the experience using #RaiseTheWage.
Justice Advocacy Week was a mixture of preparation and action.
“We were receiving all of this information from the guest presenters, and it was a little overwhelming,” Pressimone said. “But gaining all of this knowledge and then being able to use it as we lobbied to raise the minimum wage gave me a lot of confidence.”
Justice Advocacy Week has been in development for nearly three years as a joint effort of NETWORK Education Program and Cabrini.
After the success of this initial pilot year, Cabrini is working with NETWORK to make the program an annual national training.