Joe Scharnweber is this week’s campus celebrity for his involvement with the UIowa campus organization, YAL, which makes him an influential figure here on campus. What is YAL you might ask? Well, I got a chance to have Joe open up about what the group entails and what it is that he finds to be most intriguing about being a part of this particular organization.
YAL stands for Young Americans for Liberty and according to Joe, it is a “pro-liberty group on campus that focuses on educating college students about libertarian values”, some of which include promoting personal freedoms and stressing the role of the Constitution on today’s government.
Being an active member of YAL for a little over a year now, Joe explains that “the great friendships, the exciting trips we’ve been able to experience, and [his] general interest in staying educated on today’s politics…” have motivated him to stay.
If you place any importance on the American future or on politics in general, YAL may be a group you want to consider looking into. “You don’t have to be a libertarian to join the group and you don’t have to believe everything that libertarians promote,” Joe makes clear for anyone that may be interested.
Joe has been able to make some pretty unforgettable memories through his participation in YAL. This past summer he and a few other YAL members road-tripped to Las Vegas for Freedom Fest 2014, a well-known liberty conference labeled as “the largest gathering of free minds”. As representatives of YAL, Joe and his co-members attended conference sessions that discussed all aspects of liberty. He noted that it was one of the best weekends of his life!
That’s not the only exciting thing that YAL has going on; Joe says that the group is planning to attend a YAL conference in Denver, Colorado as well as in Kansas during the upcoming year. Not to mention intentions of holding various socials at a shooting range, hookah bar, and local Iowa City restaurants to later be disclosed.
To wrap up our talk I asked Joe what he felt was most important about having YAL here at the University of Iowa and I wasn’t disappointed by his answer. “I feel that it is important for students not to tune out what in going on in today’s government and world. It is also important to remember that politics aren’t just Republicans and Democrats,” Joe said. For him, Young Americans for Liberty is a safe group that educates students on all of those topics.
There you have it Hawkeyes—your campus celebrity of the week, Joe Scharnweber! A fellow student who is not only doing great things on campus, but is also taking his passion for politics nationwide and bringing his experiences right back here to Iowa City. We can only expect great things from him in years to come!
If you or someone you know has an interest in joining Young Americans for Liberty, you can like their page on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, contact YAL president, Matt Evans at Matt-evans@iouwa.edu or YAL secretary, Elizabeth Hayes at Elizabeth-o-hayes@uiowa.edu.
*photo courtesy of youngstowncannabisnews