Waltham Student Making A Difference One Campaign At A Time

WALTHAM, MA — One Waltham college student is working on making a difference not just in her life, but in the lives of people across the world. She may be barely out of her teens, but her passion is helping to chip away at world poverty one campaign at a time.

Sage Rosenthal grew up outside of New York City on Long Island and from as early as she can remember knew she wanted to dedicate her life to helping others.

"When I was 4 I told my parents I wanted to be a superhero," she laughed in an interview with Patch recently.

Now this college junior not only has a full plate at Brandeis, where she's studying a cocktail of health, science society and policy. She has two jobs, one working at the daycare across the street and the other as a campus leader.

Her first year in college she said she was bursting with this need to help others but needed to narrow that. She researched what she could do and came upon the ONE Campaign, an international advocacy organization that works to raise awareness and lobby for solutions to extreme poverty and preventable disease worldwide.

That's what she wanted to do.

But because there was no organization at Brandeis, she founded a chapter. It went from just her to now seven regular members and a network of others who join in on letter writing campaigns when they can. Her sophomore year Rosenthal attended her first summit, and last month she went to her second one for the ONE Campaign as a campus leader.

She said the college was on board with her efforts, she said.

"Brandeis stands on the ideal of social justice and taking our knowledge and experience in academics. This stands for what Brandeis believes in," said Rosenthal.

This year she served as part of a Massachusetts delegation that met with Reps. Joe Kennedy, Seth Moulton and Katherine Clark, as well as the offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to get the lawmakers to sign on to improve foreign aid, something that has been trimmed by both the Obama and Trump administrations in recent years.

"As a constituent, it’s incredibly important for me that my members of Congress lead the fight against extreme poverty," she said. While she was in Washington last month she wanted to make sure they heard what she had to say on it.

She helped lobby on behalf of the bipartisan Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development, or BUILD Act, which would support entrepreneurs in communities considered extremely poverty-stricken by providing them funding so that they can lead the way for economic growth.

When her fellow students at Brandeis ask her how it's possible for one person to make a difference, to eradicate world poverty, she tells them one person and one person and one more person add up to a non partisan group of some 9 million people who work with every type of political leader.

"We write letters send tweets and phone calls," said Rosenthal. And they do see results in the legislation that gets passed.

She admits that even when she started she didn't realize how much say she had. "It’s surprising how much our voice really matters," she said.

But soon after meeting with the ONE delegates, Moulton cosponsored the act — which was introduced to the House of Representatives on Feb. 27 .

"That just shows how much progress we’re making," said Rosenthal. "It’s a great, surprising thing."

And that is the byproduct of her work. She has learned that one person, one letter, one conversation can really make a difference and she wants others to know this, too.

"It’s really important that everyone realize that their voice really does make a difference," she said.

Waltham College Student Heads To DC To Make A Difference

>>Photo courtesy, ONE Campaign.