LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

1. Dare to Hope

Farouk Aregbe is the founder of One Million Strong for Barack, an online group that generated national attention for garnering over 300,000 young people in a matter of weeks. He is a recent alumnus of North Dakota University and currently resides in Washington, D.C.

2. My Political Awakening

Sarah R. Carter is currently a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at UC-San Francisco, where her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms and intracellular signaling pathways that underlie learning and memory. She was born in Georgia, grew up in Evanston, Illinois, and is the granddaughter of former president Jimmy Carter.

3. Finding Hope in an Age of Skepticism

Stephen McIntyre grew up in Claremont, California. He recently graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese, and is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor and a Master of Arts in East Asian Studies at Duke University. He has been married for two years. His wife, Nicole, teaches elementary school.

4. My Reflection

Estevan Carlos Benson works in new media, music, and mixed media as an MFA student in Design/Media Arts at UCLA. His work is featured on his personal website at www.estevancarlos.com. Once he almost drowned in Walden Pond. He says it wasn’t fun. His friend said, “How transcendental.”

5. Joining the Conversation

Akin Salawu is an alumnus of both Stanford and Columbia University. He was awarded the Sherifa Omada Edoga Prize for his role in founding and running a culturally diverse theatre group. Akin interned at Kopelson Entertainment, Donner/Shuler-Donner, and Dreamworks SKG before working on the New Orleans season of the MTV reality show The Real World. Akin currently lives in New Jersey and has more or less devoted his personal website www.atthatdrop.com and filmmaking skills to the grassroots effort to support Senator Obama’s presidential campaign.

6. Just a poor kid from Ohio

Aaron Hatfield is currently a senior at Van Wert High School in Ohio. He is a member of the Van Wert YMCA and enjoys playing basketball, music and hanging out with friends.

7. A Vision for a Better World

Dean Burrier will be a senior at Western Reserve Academy in the fall of 2007. He plays three varsity sports: basketball, track and cross country. He plans to major in History in college.

8. A Nobody’s Opinion

Billie Zahir is a single mother pursuing a history education degree at Macon State College in Georgia. She has a 14 year old daughter and hopes to soon be a high school history teacher.

9. More than a Game

Charley Johnson is a recent graduate of the University of Washington. He interned for the Woodrow Wilson Center, the German Marshall Fund, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the U.S. Senate, and worked for Teach For America. He currently lives and works in Washington D.C.

10. Back to the Beginning

Kristine Deku just moved back to Newport Beach, California, where she was born and raised. She currently works as a Patient Advocate at the Share Our Selves free clinic in Costa Mesa. She has spent the past eight years living in North Carolina, first earning her B.A. at Davidson College and then working in Durham, but decided to move closer to family and home. Next year she hopes to return to school and study pediatric nursing. Her ultimate goals are to work in pediatric oncology and to teach future generations of nursing students.

11. The Promise for Progress

Henry Kraemer is a native of the Pacific Northwest and serves as College Media Liaison for Students for Barack Obama. Currently in his sophomore year at Portland State University, he sees a coming political age of social acceptance and economic rationality. He hungers to work in the sort of government Senator Obama represents.

12. A New Generation of Politics

Joshua Gorman lives in Washington, D.C. where he is a student at George Mason University. He serves as Chief Strategist for Barack the Youth Vote and has been involved with creating and sustaining youth movements locally, nationally, and globally. One of his current projects is working with Reuniting America to pioneer a new generation of politics by bringing high-level youth leaders together from across the political spectrum to engage in transformative dialogue.

13. Cynicism and Hope

Michael Heinz is a student at the State University of New York at Stony Brook emphasizing in political science.

14. Time for the Future

Matthew Kugler currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas where he is a sophomore majoring in Political Science at the University of Kansas. He has dedicated much of his life to charitable organizations, including the Make-A-Wish foundation, 65-Roses (CF Foundation), and as a Local Youth Representative for LifeGift (Organ Donor Organization).

15. A Return of Civil Discourse

William Figueroa is a student at Rice University in Texas where he is double-majoring in Anthropology and Chinese.

16. A New Bus Driver

Nathan Lean is a senior piano major at East Carolina University and the director of the online group, Rock with Barack. He is a Master’s in International Studies candidate with a focus in political science and cultural arts. He has spent time living in and touring Morocco and has performed various concerts as a guest of the United States Embassy.

17. Practical Idealist

Teresa Lynn Brecht was born in Hutchinson, Minnesota and is currently an undergraduate physics student at the University of Minnesota. She strives to include politics and community organizing as a significant and gratifying part of her life.

18. The Real Thing

Shannon Craig is a graduate of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. She now attends Hope College in Holland, Michigan as a Political Science and History double major. Shannon currently serves as the Michigan Field Director of Students for Barack Obama.

19. The Content of his Character

Caseen Gaines is a student at Rutgers University, where he is studying American Studies, English, and Journalism.

20. Hope and Renewal

Joseph Seago was born in California, raised in Colorado, and currently lives in New York City where he is studying Political Science at York College of the City University of New York. An active, passionate and proud Democrat since childhood, Joseph currently focuses on disability issues and press/communications for both the College Democrats of America and the Young Democrats of America. Aside from being a statewide and national leader in college politics, Joseph is also an avid writer and blogger for Campus Progress.

21. What a President Should Be

Thomas Fringer is currently an undergraduate student at The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he is pursuing degrees in Public Policy and Government. He graduated in 2006 from Westfield Senior High School, in Westfield, New Jersey. He splits his time between his home in New Jersey and college in Virginia.

22. A True Leader

Robby Grossman is a senior at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. In addition to majoring in Computer Science, he has focused on studying American Foreign Policy. An avid political junkie, he has experience working for county and state campaigns, including Whitehouse for Senate in 2006.

23. A Breath of Fresh Air

Mark Rutledge is currently a Fellow at The Greenlining Institute in Berkeley, California where he works on increasing access to advanced information and communications technology for low-income and minority communities. Mark is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and in 2006 received his Bachelor of Arts from Eureka College (Eureka, IL) in Political Science and History, with a concentration in Communications. In his spare time Mark enjoys reading socio-political commentaries, writing lucid thoughts on life and the state, viewing Netflix films and going to the gym.

24. Let’s Get to Work

Benjamin Weinberg is a junior at Smithtown High School West in New York. He is a member of the Political Awareness Club, Academic Quiz Bowl, secretary of the Model United Nations Club and co-founder of the Darfur Action Committee at his school. He plans to major in International Relations and Political Science in college.

25. We Have It in Our Power to Begin the World Over Again

Keith Ferguson writes a weekly editorial blog for Barack the Youth Vote. He is a 2005 graduate of the University of Puget Sound, where he studied English and History. Originally a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Keith currently lives in New York City.