Meet Rebecca Yanez, IGNITE's Oklahoma City Fellow
IGNITE is pleased to announce that Rebecca Yanez will be serving as our first-ever Oklahoma City Fellow! We caught up with Rebecca to chat about her hopes for the Fellowship.
IGNITE: Rebecca, we are so excited to have you joining us as the Oklahoma City Fellow! Let’s talk about what brought you to IGNITE.
RY: I wanted to serve as an IGNITE Fellow because the commitment to democracy and equity are important values to me as a student and future lawyer.
IGNITE: That’s great to hear! Fellows are politically and civically engaged leaders in their communities. What is one thing you want to change in your community and why?
RY: I would like to see more young people voting in the City of Norman.
IGNITE: Voting is such an important way to exercise your political power. Can you tell us more about your political leadership experience?
RY: I’m the President of College Democrats at Oklahoma University and the journalism/recruitment director for Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature. I have also been involved in several campaigns, including the Clark for Norman campaign. I was also the youngest OK Dems Affirmative Action chair in 2019-2021 and the former chair of MFOL and the Youth Climate strike of Oklahoma. I am also the representative of the social sciences for Student Government Association.
IGNITE: You are quite civically engaged it seems. Why is civic engagement important to you?
RY: Civic engagement is important because it is imperative to the individual liberties of everyone. It is also important to keep citizens informed of what's happening in our government and how it affects them. Thousands have fought hard for the right to vote, and keeping civic engagement alive is the best way of honoring that.
IGNITE: Here are IGNITE, we want to empower young women to become more civically engaged. How will you mobilize your community and get them excited about IGNITE?
Through my work in advocacy in various organizations, I can help keep the student body informed of IGNITE.
IGNITE: Thank you for your time, Rebecca! Last question, can you share how you define leadership and how you exemplify it in your work?
RY: Leadership is the act of being able to guide others to success both pragmatically and emotionally and uplifting the voices around them to help create more leaders in their communities
More about Rebecca:
Rebecca Yanez serves as IGNITE’s Oklahoma City Fellow. She is double majoring in Professional Writing and Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. During college, she has served in the Oklahoma Democratic Party as an Affirmative Action Chair in Congressional District 4, making her the youngest on the state central committee at that point. She has also served in various leadership positions within the Young Democrats of Oklahoma and College Democrats of Oklahoma. Currently, she is the President of College Democrats at OU. Becca has staffed various campaigns at both the state and federal level. Becca has served as a Democracy Coach for Generation Citizen in Oklahoma. Becca became interested in national politics after interning for Kendra Horn in Congressional District 5 and moving to D.C. in 2021 to report on legislative affairs that affect Oklahomans. Becca hopes to spread the message of IGNITE to Oklahoma and give the state its well-deserved access to resources. For Oklahoma City inquiries, please contact rebecca@ignitenational.org.