Salma Osman

My journey in politics began when I was a freshman in high school, and I've now been involved for four years as a college freshman at Seton Hall University. I attended a Title I school in Greenville, New Jersey, where 40% or more of the student population came from low-income families. We didn't have a lot of financial resources supporting the school, which impacted both my education and the opportunities available to us. We relied heavily on nonprofits like the Newark YMCA to back up programs and pay our teachers for after school activities. When we did have the opportunity to attend more prestigious clubs or programs like Youth and Government, it became blaringly obvious that there was such a huge discrepancy between what we were offered and what other high schoolers had access to. This inspired me to get more involved in my high school and middle school, working on different social projects like bettering Columbia Park near Infinity Institute. We worked with the mayor at the time, Mayor Fullup, to make sure the park was clean, that there were trash cans around the park, and plastic bags for pet owners. We also worked on food pantries and stocking up our local community food pantries, as well as other activities for students at my high school. That kind of spurred my involvement in politics, and I got more and more officially involved in either local mayoral races or city council races. I continued that work at Seton Hall University, where I started my own chapter of the Seton Hall College Democrats last semester. I'm enrolled in the 3 plus 3 program, which means I'll finish my bachelor's in 2.5 years in political science, and if I get a 162 on the LSAT and maintain a 3.6 GPA or above, I'll be able to get into Seton Hall Law School. I'm also in the Honors Program and serve as one of two senators representing the Arts and Science College in the Student Government Association, a position I won as a current freshman. My work focuses on bringing youth involvement into politics, especially with the upcoming midterms and local politics, to make sure young people have a voice in the room of politics.