Only Online / Luc Schuster '02
Youth Movement
Welcome to the world of political organizing, where a single day's vote can leave you out in the cold.

By Pauline A. Nash

Concerned with the lack of educators on his local school board, GED teacher Luc Schuster ’02 launched an unconventional campaign that would put him in public office at the age of 25.

Twice a week for four months in 2005, a cross section of Cambridge, Mass., educators, friends and politically active 20-somethings gathered at his apartment to share a pizza and plan for an electoral upset. This core group canvassed the historic neighborhoods of Porter and Harvard Square, held hosted open house events in living rooms across the city and attracted waves of young people to a voter registration celebration at a local pub. As the Cambridge School Committee election neared, Schuster’s campaign attracted more and more young volunteers.

“Every aspect involved young people. We wrote the model together,” says Schuster. “It was one of the best things about the campaign—doing it with friends and having fun doing it.”

At about half the age of the average board member, and with no children of his own, Schuster emphasized his lifelong Cambridge residency, his experience with the public school system as teacher and graduate and his passion for energizing young voters.

Matt Nelson, a friend since high school who worked as campaign field organizer for Schuster, says Schuster’s age was both a challenge and an advantage. Holding the homemade flyers in their hands, Cambridge voters would look at Nelson quizzically…okay, but does he have kids in the schools?

“We would respond telling them that Luc graduated from Cambridge public schools and now he’s teaching in them,” says Nelson. “Many of the school committee members are long-time residents but they can’t say that.”

Voters were convinced, with Schuster winning in an election process that often favors incumbents.

It was at Pomona that Schuster realized to what extent young people could affect politics.

When Jake Oken-Berg ’02, a classmate in his freshmen seminar, finished 2nd out of 17 candidates for mayor of Portland, Ore., in 2000, Schuster started to imagine the possibilities. He began his civic education, learning about the wide range of opportunities in the political process.

Schuster’s tenure on the board has given people something else to focus on—his leadership and conviction, even if it means sometimes being a lone voice of dissent. Schuster began his first term asking: Are public schools teaching solely for test scores? It is a tough question, and one Schuster hasn’t yet seen the resolution he has been aiming for.

But he has seen successes, too.

During his first two years, he helped create a new position at the high school for a service learning coordinator, a revised military recruitment policy that bans drop-in visits and a professional development program that offers coaching for teachers within their classrooms.

Although he isn’t in front of the blackboard this year, Schuster keeps a busy schedule of civic duties. He is currently an organizer for adult education program across the state and was the 2007 co-chair for the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party. Last summer he directed a service-learning project for members of the high school golf team that combined teaching the sport to underserved children from the city and painting a 20-foot mural touting the benefits of municipal water over bottled water.

Just off the heels of his Nov. 2007 re-election, Schuster isn’t ready to commit to a third term. But he is confident that 10 years from now he’ll still be making his voice heard in local politics.