Jelinda Montes

My Recent Work

The Nation •

How High School Voters Can Impact the 2024 Election

In 2016, Jahnavi Rao realized her civic voice was underestimated, even ignored. So, as a high school student in Pennsylvania, she founded New Voters, a school club that aimed to register high school students to vote and amplify their voices in elections.

“I wanted to be heard and I wanted my friends to be heard,” Rao said. “And as New Voters grew, I realized that high school was just such an untapped group of people in these elections.” As the president of the organization, Rao, now 23, has hel...

Six Aspiring Educators Win Jack Kinnaman Scholarships | NEA

For more than two decades, NEA-Retired members have generously contributed to the Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship Fund to support NEA Aspiring Educators (AE). A long-standing NEA member and leader, Kinnaman was a teacher for nearly 30 years. He retired in 1986 and later served as vice president of NEA-Retired. After Kinnaman died in 2002, NEA-Retired established a scholarship fund in his honor. Today, the scholarship supports six aspiring educators each year. Let’s meet the 2024 winners, who...

Staff Editorial: AU’s protest ban targets and silences student organizations — just as planned - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
American University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was placed on disciplinary probation for alleged violations of the indoor protest ban directive issued on Jan. 25. A Feb. 8 silent protest of around 30 demonstrators walking through buildings was e...

American University’s hiring of Huron Consulting further closes students and staff out of key decision making - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
The New School, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside have a few things in common: they faced serious budget shortfalls, hired Huron Consulting and subsequently laid off numerous s...

Staff Editorial: American University’s budget shortfall should be a wakeup call to prioritize current students - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
Colleges and universities across the country are facing a fiscal crisis — American University is no exception to the trend. 


American University announced a $1.3 million increase to the expected budget shortfall fo...

Staff Editorial: Restricting student speech on AU’s campus suppresses its ‘changemakers’ - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
See a photo gallery of indoor protests at AU over the years, including two from the Fall 2023 semester.



On Jan. 25, American University announced a ban on indoor protests, mandated student organizations welcome al...

Becoming an Educator in the Age of Banned Books | NEA

Extremist politicians are intentionally fueling fear and dividing citizens by banning books that represent marginalized people. It is no accident that most of the challenged titles feature LGBTQ+ voices and People of Color. 
Often a single parent’s challenge is enough to ban a book from school shelves indefinitely. According to PEN America, a nonprofit that defends free expression, over 1,550 individual titles were banned across more than 33 states during the 2022–2023 school year. 
Which states...

A Field Guide to Union Advocacy | NEA

These Aspiring Educators hasten to places where policy is made, determined to have a word with the leaders who make decisions about public schools. 
Skilled guides. With NEA support and training, these future educators share their expertise on what students and educators need to succeed. 
Bridge-builders. These members do not avoid problems. When they get time to advocate for students, they make the most of it.  
Ever since her sophomore year ​ at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, Pr...
The American Prospect •

Food Businesses Step Up to Curb Food Waste

Bullfrog Bagels’ five Washington locations serve up thousands of fresh bagels every day. Customers often clamor for “everything” bagels, so the cinnamon raisin display starts to look a bit neglected. On weekends, the goods usually sell out long before the shops close—but on a slow weekday, even the most popular bagels and sandwiches barely move. In the past, sometimes volunteer groups picked up a day’s worth of leftover bagels to donate to shelters and food pantries. But more often than not, Bul...

Advocating for Humane Prisons | NEA

Her father became incarcerated when she was 2 years old. Her family lost their sole breadwinner and were thrust into poverty and homelessness. 
“I did my very best to cover up that shame by being the very best person I could be, being the best student, trying to excel in everything, and thought that would hide it all,” Collins says. “I didn’t have to really face it until my own son became incarcerated.”
Collins and her husband, who live in Wilton, Maine, adopted their son when he was 8 years old...
The American Prospect •

Will Virginia College Students Turn Out to Vote?

The knock on young people is that they don’t vote, but when it comes to national issues and presidential elections, they can get motivated to cast a ballot. James Madison University, a large public university located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, saw 75 percent of its student body vote in 2020—over 15,000 students. The Shenandoah Valley school outvoted the rest of the state’s 18- to-29-year-olds by nearly 20 percentage points.

But when the presidency isn’t at stake or if major state constitution...

Staff Editorial: Arming AUPD is not a solution to student safety - The Eagle

The American University Police Department may begin arming its officers with lethal force weapons. University Vice President Bronté Burleigh-Jones, shared this proposal with the campus community on Oct. 4 in a memo addressing campus safety. 
Burleigh-Jones emphasized the importance of community input on this decision. In that spirit, The Eagle’s editorial board overwhelmingly disapproves of arming AUPD officers with lethal weapons. 


Introducing g...

Opinion: A dollar store’s hidden costs - The Eagle

Small towns and big cities across the country are protesting against the opening of new dollar stores in their neighborhoods. One would expect the opening of new and cheaper shops to be welcomed by thrifty consumers, however, the negative impacts of these stores far outweigh the lower prices. These dollar store invasions drive out established grocery stores and leave communities with substandard food resources and economic opportunities. 
Dollar stores are everywhere. As of 2022, the industry du...

Bulletin Board: Retirees Spread Cheer to Teachers and Students | NEA

A trip to the Saint Louis Zoo, science field trips, and take-home books for students are just a few of the ways students have benefited from a Missouri NEA (MNEA)-Retired grants program, called Caring Help for Education Endeavors by Retirees (CHEER).
The CHEER Fund got its start back in 2013, when MNEA-Retired received a surprise donation. They decided to use the windfall to award $250 grants to MNEA teachers in support of their classroom work. 
Today, thanks to the generosity of MNEA-Retired me...

How Ballot Measures Power Progress in Public Schools | NEA

In 2020, Arizona voters passed Proposition 208, a monumental ballot measure to restore nearly $1 billion in funding for K–12 schools.
For years, the state legislature had grossly underfunded public schools. Arizona was nearly last in the nation in per-pupil spending, and educators and parents were fed up with large class sizes and a lack of resources.
Educators and parents teamed up, collecting more than 250,000 signatures to place the citizen-initiated measure on the ballot. “Prop 208” passed w...
Washington City Paper •

Shakespeare Theatre Company Wants to Make Theater a Place for Everyone

With the ever-increasing availability of wide arrays of media that can be accessed from the comfort of one’s home, a trip to the theater can seem less desirable these days. Why bother buying a ticket for something you can only see once and could cost substantially more than the monthly subscription to a streaming service when you can binge watch to your heart’s content on the couch?

This is the question regional theaters across the country are asking themselves in the wake of the pandemic. Answ...

Opinion: The US is designed for cars — not people - The Eagle

From the Newsstands: This story appeared in The Eagle's April 2023 print edition. You can find the digital version here. 
The United States is the land of the free, as long as those free have cars and homes. Car dependence in America is an undoubtable reality. The image of a six-lane road lined with fast-food restaurants and gas stations is seen all across the country as the byway between residential and commercial areas.     


D.C. is not divorce...

Staff Editorial: President Burwell’s panel on free expression expressed values and principles, but not much else - The Eagle

American University President Sylvia Burwell held a panel on free expression and the updated Freedom of Expression and Expressive Conduct policy on Feb. 1, along with other university heads from across the country. Burwell and her fellow panelists spent the majority of the event discussing values like inclusion and diversity, but the message fell flat — ultimately seeming more like a PR move appealing to donors than true sentiment on expanding free expression across campus. 
Panelists discussed...

Opinion: Where do we cross the line in classroom debate? - The Eagle

From the Newsstands: This story appeared in The Eagle's November 2022 print edition. You can find the digital version here. 
Anger is a valid emotion, but should it be invoked in classroom debate? Should conversations be pushed to the point where students are yelling, crying or leaving the room?


Heated, lively discourse is something that should be encouraged, but too many times I have seen debates in my classes turn ugly and unproductive. College...

Opinion: Ambitious students are let down by restrictive regulations for Combined Degree Programs - The Eagle

The combined bachelor’s/master’s degree program is confusing. It’s a program offered between American University’s undergraduate and graduate schools, and it has many great perks. However, the process of understanding the rules and regulations required for undergraduate students to participate in the program is far more difficult than it should be. This is due to a lack of clear communication between advisors and students on rules surrounding undergraduate credit limits. 
The program itself allo...

Opinion: Barriers to ADHD Assistance in colleges are not only impractical, but damaging - The Eagle

There is no question that going to college is hard, but for some college students, the difficulty in accomplishing even the most simple tasks seems insurmountable. Certain tasks, assignments and responsibilities shouldn’t be as taxing as they appear, which is incredibly frustrating. Trying in vain to work on a project, but instead sitting at your computer for hours on end, mind blank or wandering endlessly, is not normal. Wanting to get out of bed and start your day but feeling an invisible barr...

Opinion: Student Government’s toxic environment: The organization’s failings stem from the top - The Eagle

American University’s Student Government has been a broken institution for a long time. Often, students begin at the Senate and Executive branch with initial high hopes for student body advocacy but leave disillusioned at the inefficacy of the organization. Under the current administration, these sentiments have only grown stronger. 
Students may find the organization’s lack of efficacy and complacency unremarkable considering student body communication is practically nonexistent. On the outside...

Opinion: Scholarship displacement: The fallacy of being 'overawarded' - The Eagle

Depending on a student's experience with financing their education, they may or may not know of the term scholarship displacement. This practice consists of financial aid offices reducing federal and university awarded aid after students report outside scholarships to their university. 
Critics oppose scholarship displacement because institutional support is essentially replaced with private gift aid, which changes a student’s total aid awarded to practically net zero. Students virtually waste t...