On Tuesday evening, around 30 Binghamton University students gathered in Old University Union to hear a panel present their ideas for focusing current political energy into permanent engagement and productive change.

Organized and moderated by Nadiya Al-Noor, a special programs assistant at the BU Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), “Passion to Action: What Now?” was a part of the CCE’s Passion to Action workshop series, which aims to provide students with productive ways they can increase their awareness and involvement with issues in local government.

The panel included Sean Massey, associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at BU as well as a former Binghamton city councilman for the South Side; Brianna Cea, a BU sophomore double-majoring in political science and philosophy, politics and law who founded the student group Bing for Broome; and Erin Riddle, the chair of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, whose work is focused in New York as part of a nationwide organization fighting for environmental rights.

Al-Noor invited the members of the panel to speak in order to show students how they could be involved politically, besides voting in the presidential election every four years. She said that she hoped students could productively channel emotions about the most recent election while interacting with the communities around them.

Cea reiterated this sentiment, imploring students to be open to listening to a variety of voices, hopefully allowing them to better understand other people’s views on issues and effectively work with them to foster productive change.

“If the local community sees students coming together around issues it can be very influential,” Cea said. “Go figure out which student clubs on campus may relate to your issues, and go meet with them and build relationships.”

The panel held a discussion about their experiences with local government before Al-Noor offered attendees an opportunity to ask the speakers direct questions. In response to a question about new political activists potentially burning out if their efforts fail to enact immediate change, Massey reminded the audience that getting involved locally does not have to be a constant grind.

“This kind of stuff is super fun,” Massey said. “Especially if you have groups of people that you’re working with — so it’s like you go out with your friends, your co-conspirators; and you have a plan, you hold meetings, you drink lots of coffee and you show up. Even if you don’t win it’s kind of amazing, there’s something very powerful about that.”

Sam Aghassi, a sophomore double-majoring in accounting and philosophy, said that he felt that it was important for young people to be civically engaged as well as understand the importance of addressing local issues.

“Staying involved at a local level, wherever you end up in life, is important because reading the papers and getting to know the culture of the places that you’re living in is going to affect you,” Aghassi said. “And you can also have a positive impact on those places as well.”

In closing, Riddle again emphasized that long-term change must begin at the local level before it can reach a larger audience. She reminded attendees that they must reach out and interact with what’s around them, to find others interested in helping and to shift the conversation about the things they care about.

“It’s important to think about how your activism is wherever you are,” Riddle said. “And the way that you become engaged is where people are too and that when you become engaged, or when you get involved, you plug into this community of people who share your concerns and passions.”