Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — a Democratic presidential nominee hopeful — was introduced by three individuals at his rally at the MassMutual Center on Oct. 3: standing alongside esteemed environmentalist author Bill McKibben and co-president of National Nurses United Karen Higgens was Lexi Oullette ’18.

“I think it shows that the campaign is very in touch with the fact that they are trying to project people’s voices and people who are engaged,” Oullette said of the speaking opportunity in an interview with the Justice.

Oullette is involved with the national organization College Students for Bernie as well as the University-centered student group Brandeis for Bernie. She is a social media chair for College Students for Bernie and was offered the chance to introduce the candidate when a Sanders’ campaign staffer reached out to the coordinator of the Brandeis chapter of the nationwide organization.

Oullette says the campaign was looking for “a student who is in the area or either from the area, who’s kind of already engaged with the campaign in some way, who would be comfortable and able to talk about student conditions in the country” and that she was ultimately chosen for the speaking position after conferring with a few people involved in the campaign.

Oullette’s speech at the rally focused on the challenges of student debt facing many young Americans. She said in the interview that she feels drawn to the Sanders’ campaign largely due to Sanders’ history of supporting legislation to combat student debt and how the Sanders’ campaign presented a policy plan on the issue early on. “I would definitely say that not only is it an important issue to me and basically everyone I’m friends with, but also anyone under 30, because they are probably experiencing some type of debt,” Oullette said of the broadly resonating message of Sanders’ policy.

The MassMutual Center’s crowd of approximately 6,000 people, according to an Oct. 3 MassLive article, marked the largest group Oullette had ever spoken in front of—her previous record was an audience of 300.

“I think that probably the best part of the experience was to see that 6,000 people on a rainy Saturday wanted to come out and do this and engage,” she said of the high attendance rate.

Oullete arrived early to the event, giving her time to engage with campaign staffers and converse with speakers Higgens and McKibben before taking the stage. Speaking specifically of Higgens’ connection to the local crowd, Oullette explained, “Karen…works in Massachusetts. She’s not somebody they fly in from the nurses’ union in California to talk. She’s here, she understands why people here feel that these are relevant issues.” Oullette is a Massachusetts native herself and points to this emphasis on local constituencies as a strength of the Sanders’ campaign movement.

Additionally, Oullette said she is aware that Sanders is considered an “alternative” candidate in Massachusetts, pointing to the state’s support for current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary.

Still, she argues that the large crowds, such as drawing over 20,000 people for a rally on that same night in Boston, as well as the campaign’s claim of over one million individual contributors, indicate high levels of support for the Sanders campaign. Oullette attributes the success of non-traditional candidates — such as Sanders on the Democratic side and Trump on the Republican side — to the public’s frustration with the political mainstream and the Washington status-quo, stating, “I think it speaks a lot to the ways that people necessarily don’t feel like they are being represented by current political systems right now.”

Speaking on Sanders’ appeal, Oullette elaborated, “It might just be that not a lot of people feel right now that mainstream, I guess ‘corporate’ you could even say, politics are representing them and in that case, it’s very easy for people to immediately look to that next person that it feels like offers an alternative while staying inside of the system, and that’s kind of Bernie right now.”

She added that while she believes that Sanders’ campaign has done well in attracting grassroots support, she thinks that the campaign could do a better job with matters such as criminal justice reform and racial justice. “They’ve done okay responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, but there could be more engagement on those issues,” she said.

In the wake of speaking at the Springfield rally, Oullette said she believes that the next steps for the Brandeis for Bernie and College Students for Bernie groups should involve sending representatives to the important primary state of New Hampshire to aid in canvassing, phone-banking and voter registration drives.

In addition to recruiting volunteers, Oullette emphasized the importance of helping people find political representation, stating, “A next step for all of us who are involved is to bring in more people, to help people engage in different levels and maybe even if Bernie’s not their person, where they can best go to feel like they have a voice.”