Pace’s Coordinator for Student Leadership Initiatives John Reinhardt held his #Advocacy event, which was meant to facilitate discussion and understanding about becoming involved in advocacy movements, in Alumni Hall classroom Wed., Feb. 1.

Reinhardt explained that when trends become popular, people tend to jump on the bandwagon without understanding the movement’s purpose such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Students in the room recalled how their friends did not understand what the actual point of the movement was.

Students in the room recalled how their friends did not understand what the actual point of the movement was.

“Students learned the difference between being aware and being an advocate,” Reinhardt said.

Some movements gain more traction because people will feel passionate and repost those hashtags, according to Reinhardt.

It takes someone passionate enough to make the movement move from the realm of the internet into reality, however, which was seen with movements like #Womensmarch and #boycottstarbucks. Those movements were reposted so much that they made an impact on people.

Those movements were reposted so much that they made an impact on people.

One student brought up the #deleteuber trend as an example how a hashtag movement got people talking. was able to affect an entire business and bring about an actual response from the company as well as other companies.

#DeleteUber was able to affect an entire business and bring about an actual response from the company as well as other companies.

Students discussed what they felt made movements take off. One participant referenced how there is power in numbers or how sometimes someone might try to push an idea that’s genuine, but without any traction, the movement cannot reach people and become effective.

Reinhardt also explained how movements used to require doing things like marching or protesting, but with the rise of social media, it transformed into trends. There has been a reinvigoration of taking physical action in light of things such as the political climate, however.

“Students who are involved in college tend to be more involved than someone living in a general community because people living in communities believe in communal values versus values of academia,” Reinhardt said. “Academia tends to have more student representation and more diversity so people connect to many issues.”

Reinhardt does not normally speak about these forms of civic engagement but is happy that he was able to make a point to the students that came out to the event.

Reinhardt encourages students who care a lot about something to follow their passions and talk about it. He says they feel a connection to civic engagement they can go to Center for Community Action and Research on campus and become involved.