In this excerpt of a cross-post from the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), Jeremy Hedlund and Isaiah Toney, SLAP members at the University of Oregon and George Washington University, respectively, explain that students have real power.

As summer winds down and schools across the nation start back up, students are being forced to ask themselves many tough questions. “How will I pay for my school? Will I be able to get a job when I graduate? And will that job be a good paying, family wage job, or will I have to work weekends just to make ends meet?”

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita contributed to this report.

Today, on what would have been César Chávez’s 84th birthday, students, workers and immigrants joined together to pay tribute to the legacy of Chávez.

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita joins Chris Hicks, Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) coordinator, to discuss the parallels between campus and community organizing.

Founded in 1999 as a joint initiative between Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) engages student activists with economic justice campaigns in their communities and campuses.