NATCA Scholarship Winner Kaitlynn Gradt’s Essay: “ There is power in numbers!”

Every year, NATCA offers a scholarship program for spouses, children, stepchildren, and legally adopted children of active, retired, and deceased members in good standing for at least two consecutive years. This scholarship is for full-time attendance at accredited colleges and universities within the United States and its territories for an undergraduate degree program. 

Unions empower people to negotiate together and advocate for better conditions and policies on local, state and national levels, working to achieve a brighter future for everyone. For 2022, students were asked to write in response to the prompt: “What is the difference between a group of people advocating for a cause versus one person speaking up for something they feel strongly about?” 

Kaitlynn Gradt, child of Jason Gradt is among this year’s 20 winners of a $1,000 scholarship. Below is the essay that Kaitlynn submitted. 

As Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” I believe that a group of people advocating for a cause is more effective than just one single person speaking out about something they feel strongly for. Advocating as a group is more effective in the long run because multiple people who have the same beliefs and who are constantly advertising for whatever they feel strongly about are more likely to get your attention. 

For instance, the other day, I saw a lady standing on the side of the road with a sign saying “Pray for Ukraine”. I acknowledged that she was standing there, advocating for what she believes is relevant, but I brushed it off, not really thinking twice about it. 

The day after that, I saw the same lady on the side of the road, but she had about four or five more people with her, with signs that said “Pray for Ukraine.” With multiple people advocating for what they believe in, it caught my and others’ attention. When there is a group of people who are persistent with showing up to share their beliefs, it is more likely to be effective and make a difference. 

While I believe that a group of people advocating for a cause is more effective than just one single person speaking out about something they feel strongly for, speaking out by yourself takes a lot of courage. Individual advocacy helps you to speak up about what you want, get the information you need to make your own decisions, and to explore the choices you want to make. But like I said in the previous paragraph, I did not think twice about the single lady standing on the road. It took a group of people for me to do what their signs said. There is power in numbers!