“That’s what I really get passionate about, is when we can take an issue and we can find a solution and connect the two in a way that utilizes people’s rights through government and is also meaningful and helps communities,” says Jessica Davidson. Photo: Cam Welch
No one is as surprised as Jessica Davidson that she ended up not only a political science major, but vice president of DU’s Undergraduate Student Government as well.
“When I was a kid, my parents’ friends — as everybody tells children — would say, ‘One day you’ll be president of the United States,’” recalls Davidson, who is pursuing a BA in political science and a concurrent master’s of public policy degree through DU’s 4+1 program. “And because I heard adults say this all the time, I would say, ‘Whatever; I hate politics.’ I had no idea what that meant, but I used to say it all the time as a kid.”
That all changed Davidson’s first year at DU, when a first-year seminar with political science professor Peter Hanson sparked a passion for politics that led her to student government and a possible future career in policy analysis.
“A big part of it also came from the presidential debate being here on campus my freshman year,” Davidson says of her interest in politics. “I actually ended up getting a ticket at the last minute, and on the floor of the debate I met Sen. Mark Udall and I told him I was interested in the law and that I was taking a politics class, and he offered me an internship on the spot. The following fall I interned for his office, and that’s when I really started to become very invested in politics. And I haven’t looked back since.”
Davidson joined DU’s Undergraduate Student Government as a senator her sophomore year and “had a really great experience, but when I ended the year I didn’t really feel satisfied,” she says. “I felt like there was a lot more that could have been done.” So in spring 2015, she and junior Cameron Hickert ran for — and won — the election for USG vice president and president, respectively. Their term begins in fall quarter 2015.
Her passion for politics also has taken Davidson to an internship with a Denver-based lobbying firm, as well as to Uganda, where, thanks to a DU research grant, she traveled in summer 2015 to conduct research for the Global Livingston Institute on the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Davidson says law school may be in her future someday, but for now she aspires to a position as a policy analyst for a senator or a congress member.
“It would be fun to serve as an elected official, but I don’t know that elected officials are always those who are making the most change and are making the most decisions,” she says. “It really is their advisors who are saying, ‘This is exactly what the policy is and how it’s going to impact people.’ That’s what I really get passionate about, is when we can take an issue and we can find a solution and connect the two in a way that utilizes people’s rights through government and is also meaningful and helps communities.”