We are excited to welcome Katerina Dorian to our team this summer as one of our Summer 2019 interns. Katerina is a rising sophomore at the University of Virginia where she hopes to major in Political Science with a concentration in Foreign Affairs. After graduation, she hopes to work for the federal government or for a non-profit political think tank in Washington, DC. Her favorite hobby is photography.
Why is NeW important?
NeW is vitally important for the prominent role it plays in ending the assumption that only political liberalism “supports women”. As a female empowerment group, NeW works to end the stigmatization female conservatives face and provides young conservative women with positive role models they can look up to who also share their political values and beliefs.
What is the most important conservative issue in your opinion?
One of the most important conservative issues in my opinion is school choice. In order to improve the access of all citizens to a high-quality education, I believe that our government should work to provide more options to students at the primary level. Expanding the offering of magnet and charter programs, as well as loosening regulations on homeschooling, all work to diversify our federal education system. One type of schooling does not work for every child and providing more options helps to personalize our learning institutions.
If you could offer advice to a new college student, what would it be?
If I could give one piece of advice to a new college student, I would tell them to attend their school’s club fair and join some organizations! You don’t need to be a part of 10 different clubs, but if you can find a few groups where you feel like you’ve really found your niche, your college experience will end up being so much better. When I joined NeW, I found a group of women who ended up becoming my best friends on campus. Besides attending social events together, we were also able to engage in lengthy discussions about our political viewpoints, and we helped each other with social networking and career planning. Now that it’s the summer, I can’t imagine how my first year would have been without knowing them.
Why were you interested in interning for NeW?
I was interested in interning for NeW because I wanted to give back to the organization that has already provided me with so many benefits after just one year of being a formal member. Additionally, I wanted to strengthen my knowledge of conservative values and expand my commitment to the conservative movement.
How do you currently advocate for conservative principles on campus?
I currently advocate for conservative principles on campus through my role as secretary for the Network of enlightened Women chapter at UVA. As a club, we have planned several social events with other conservative organizations, such as the College Republicans, in order to create the opportunity for students to interact with like-minded individuals. We have also brought several conservative speakers down to UVA as the keynote speakers at our meetings. For example, recently, our NeW chapter brought Olivia Enos to campus. Mrs. Enos works at The Heritage Foundation where she is a specialist in human rights violations in Asia and she gave a fascinating talk about the current social situation in North Korea.
