{"id":5273,"date":"2019-03-06T09:29:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T14:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=5273"},"modified":"2024-05-07T13:35:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:35:58","slug":"the-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/the-insider\/","title":{"rendered":"The Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Browsing Kayvon Paul\u2019s LinkedIn profile, it\u2019s easy to forget you\u2019re looking at an undergraduate\u2019s resume. There\u2019s a significant amount of scrolling required as you cruise through his list of work experiences: field organizer for political races, community outreach for an LGBT organization, associate at a Trenton lobbying firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At just 22 years old\u2014and still several months away from graduating with his bachelor\u2019s in political science\u2014Paul has leapt fully into the work world while still balancing classes and college life. At one point, he was juggling 50- to 60-hour weeks working on a state senate race while keeping up with his coursework and serving as president of his fraternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you want something in life, you make time for it,\u201d says Paul. \u201cYou stay up a little later, wake up a little earlier. I have a lot of friends that are dead, that are in jail. I just use that as motivation every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born and raised in Long Branch and Asbury Park, Paul says violence and gangs were all around him. The oldest of eight children, he worked at Rite Aid to help pay the bills and tried to stay out of trouble. He hadn\u2019t thought much about college until his high school history teacher\u2014who also teaches at Monmouth\u2014encouraged him to consider it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-magazine-aside\">\n<header class=\"wp-block-magazine-aside-header aside-header\"><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"poll-position\">Poll position<\/h2><\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-magazine-aside-body aside-body\">\n<p>In the months leading up to last fall\u2019s midterm elections, Paul expanded his political science savvy\u2014and further bolstered his resume\u2014by working as a research assistant for Monmouth University\u2019s Polling Institute. He was part of a team of students who helped assemble datasets for congressional house races across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe has a very good mind that grasps things in a commonsense way,\u201d says Noah Lipman, who taught Paul both in high school and at Monmouth. \u201cHe can resolve daily problems in a much quicker, analytical way than most people have the ability to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul initially enrolled as a social work student at Monmouth, but soon politics beckoned. \u201cWhen people ask me why I like political science, I usually say that politics affects everything you do, every day. How could you not be involved?\u201d says Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He took his political education outside the classroom in 2016 as an intern with New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone Jr.\u2019s campaign for re-election. A few months later, he worked on a local board of education campaign, and then joined the state Senate campaign of Vin Gopal as a paid field organizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of the obvious resume building, \u201call this is fun for me,\u201d says Paul. \u201cI like the vibes that I get from being around a bunch of political people, Republican or Democrat. I like listening to other people\u2019s views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul spent all of 2018 working as the community outreach coordinator for Garden State Equality\u2014a statewide organization&nbsp;that advocates for LGBT rights. This past January, he started full time with a Trenton-based lobbying firm, MBI-GluckShaw, where he hopes to continue working after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As he looks toward graduation in May, Paul has also been reflecting on his time at Monmouth. He credits the University\u2019s Educational Opportunity Fund&nbsp;Program, Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity, and the political science department\u2014where \u201ceach and every one of the professors really cares about the students and wants to see them grow,\u201d he says\u2014with propelling him through these busy and often challenging college years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you were to take one of those three things away,\u201d says Paul, \u201cthen I probably wouldn\u2019t be where I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kayvon Paul is still months away from graduating, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from being a force in the political world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":49,\"y\":19}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents","category-tides"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/14-Kayvon-Paul-31-ANTHONY-DEPRIMO-200x300.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-5099 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:49% 19%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/14-Kayvon-Paul-31-ANTHONY-DEPRIMO-200x300.jpg 200w, 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