Students who live in Highland Park, Macalester-Groveland, or the Shepard-Davern area may receive a visit from sophomore Carys Hsiung this summer as she campaigns for Representative Dave Pinto’s re-election. Pinto is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party and has served in the Minnesota legislature since 2014.

Hsiung has been interning with Pinto’s campaign since January and will continue her role over the summer. She has attended various events, such as her precinct’s precinct caucus, in which “representatives present themselves to the overall community,” Hsiung said. This summer, her tasks will include knocking on doors, calling voters and encouraging people to vote.

Hsiung became involved with Pinto’s campaign through the encouragement of a friend, and because he represents her district, 64B. Aside from her interest in working with her local legislator, Hsiung chose to help with Pinto’s campaign because of the causes he supports.

“He does a lot of work in child welfare and childcare … he’s also an attorney for the Ramsey County Attorney’s office, where he works on gender violence cases and domestic abuse,” she said.

Meanwhile, junior Cerena Karmaliani is spending her summer interning with a senator and advocating for a specific bill that seeks to improve support systems in early childhood education. While the details of her internship are still up in the air, she has already begun work on the bill. Karmaliani got involved with this issue through family connections.

“My dad owns an early childcare business and is looking to make laws to make the early childhood space more accessible for mental health issues or kids who need extra support,” she said.

Karmaliani and her parents are hoping to draft the bill for the Minnesota legislature. So far, work on this project has mostly entailed meeting with legislators.

“A lot of the work we’ve done or want to do starts from talking to people and finding the right person to help us push the issue forward,” Karmaliani said.

Both Hsiung and Karmaliani have always had a strong interest in politics, which is what motivated their plans this summer. For Karmaliani, her curiosity has pushed her into direct action.

“I’ve always wanted to do something to make a difference in the world,” she said. “I’m hoping to actually make change for people and learn from it as well.”

Since Pinto is running unopposed, “there’s not that much work to do,” Hsiung said. Still, she hopes to gain experience from observing the political process in action. The DFL party will try to maintain its trifecta monopoly over the House, Senate and governorship, as the representatives are up for re-election this August. The state primaries, including Pinto’s election, will occur on Aug. 13.