Despite not having enough members to apply for YAL's Generation of War activism kit, our campus decided to do a foreign policy themed table just the same. It turned out to be pretty awesome! Here’s how we did it:

My buddy Rich and I built a free standing board using two 4 x 4 pieces of wood, held together by three door hinges at the top, and two nylon straps that we screwed into place at the bottom.

Then we got to designing the board. We lined both sides with white "craft" paper (except one side fell off on the way up to the college). On one side there was a poll, and on the other there was a bunch of facts and quotes regarding the topic of foreign policy.

For our April Innovative Activism at Old Dominion University, our chapter decided to do a comparison of the national debt and student loan debt.  We did this activism in our Student Center on April 25, 2013.  The reason why we chose this topic is that we wanted to make a very clear and concise poster that students could relate too about how enormous our national debt is.

 On the left side of the poster we had the amount of national debt per taxpayer.  On the right side was the average student loan debt for those people who have student loans.  We pulled the information for the debt from a website that showed in real time the increases in the national debt as well as each citizens share of the debt.  

As we continued, we passed out of pamphlets about YAL to about 100 students as they walked past.  As well as passing out pamphlets, we also brought students to the table and talked to them about Young Americans for Liberty and what libertarianism is. Out of those students we had twelve students sign the roster to get further updates about YAL and upcoming events!

As a newly-formed organization here at Sinclair Community College, our YAL chapter needed an event that would draw attention from our peers for our April Innovative Activism. We wanted something to gain more reputable recognition and something people would enjoy participating in — and boy, did we get attention! With 27 new sign-ups and several dozen participants, we made our presence known on campus.

To decide on an attention-getting project which could also be used on any other college campus across the country, we gathered a committee and brainstormed a few ideas. We quickly came to a unanimous decision to inform the student body of the misconceptions of marijuana. With the help of Students for Liberty, we were able to obtain informational resources to help support our innovative idea. 

We wanted to depict two different scenarios with marijuana being the focal point. We created two display boards, each containing a list of five things. One of the display boards depicted incarceration rates. This showed the percentage of our prison population for each crime committed.  We asked our fellow peers to guess which offenses had the highest incarceration rates and rank them accordingly.

1. Marijuana use
2.  Property Offense
3.  Robbery
4.  Firearms
5.  Extortion

The other display board was to show how many people die each year from marijuana use. We asked participants to rank these causes of death in order from greatest to least according to their best guess.

1. Tobacco
2.  Alcohol
3.  Tylenol
4.  Peanuts
5.  Marijuana

(All stats for the display boards were fact-checked with the Bureau of Justice Statistics and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation websites.)

This March and April, 93 YAL chapters in every region of the country participated in YAL's Generation of War activism project!

Thanks to this mass activism effort, we declared loud and clear that our generation is ready to end our unconstitutional, unaffordable, immoral wars. At the same time, we recruited hundreds to join YAL.

Now, we're excited to honor the top Generation of War activism events. Competition is one of the central tenets of our philosophy. As Ludwig von Mises put it, "Competitors aim at excellence and preeminence in accomplishments within a system of mutual cooperation."

That is why with every YAL national activism project, we include an incentive for chapters to compete. For 2013 Generation of War, that incentive was:

• Best Report: $250
• Biggest Event: $250
• Best Generation of War Display: $250
• Honorable Mentions: $50

Of course, since we can't be there for each and every activism event on campus, your documentation of your event (blog post, pictures, video) plays a huge role in our ability to determine if your chapter is deserving of a prize. You will never win an activism event without good documentation!

So here are our activism contest winners:

Best Report: UNC-Chapel Hill — Don't drone me, bro!

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill chapter of Young Americans for Liberty went above and beyond with their Generation of War activities. The day of their event, the UNC chapter tabled at a high traffic location, and then hosted Jacob Hornburger for a lecture on foreign policy. Wearing "Don't drone me bro" t-shirts and even a drone costume, the UNC chapter brought attention to their group by standing under a giant drone, giving participants in their "Pin the Drone on the Warzone" game a taste of being targeted by a drone strike.

What truly separated them from the pack was their ability to attract attention for themselves in a creative yet simple fashion, especially by making the short video above. The t-shirts were all branded to go along with the event, and dressing a member up as a drone made for a fun and easy way to engage the campus.

See their entire report here!