Published on: Wednesday, November 10, 2010

By Brooke Auxier

Although not eligible to vote, area teens from Bowie and Eleanor Roosevelt high schools and Howard Community College carved time out of their busy school and extracurricular schedules to be involved in the primary election campaign efforts for Shukoor Ahmed, a democratic candidate for Maryland House of Delegates.

Ahmed has also encouraged some of them to run for public office in the future. The teens used words such as “enlightened,” “motivated” and “excited” to describe their experience during and after the campaign.

“My dad has been involved in politics since ’98. This is his fourth time running,” said Raaheela Ahmed, 17. “I know how much this means to my dad and how much he really wants to make a difference in the community.”

Raaheela, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, is the president of three different groups.

“Throughout my life, my dad has always had a passion for politics and a passion to serve people. He has always helped people through various things, and he is still helping people,” said Shabnam Ahmed, 15, also a daughter of Shukoor.

The campaign became a family affair of sorts. Nieces of Shukoor were also involved in the campaign efforts. Sadia Naseem, 16, of Hyattsville and a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt high school, said she felt like Shukoor “was a candidate that the city of Bowie really needed. The seat was open, and I thought it would be an opportunity for him.”

Zoha Afreen Ahmed, 19, of Laurel, who attends Howard Community College as a nursing major with plans to transfer to a four-year institution, helped the campaign by knocking door-to-door.

“I talked to people personally a lot more than through online or social networking sites. That was way more effective,” said Zoha Afreen. “It makes more of an impact. I loved going and talking to people.”

However, there was a large social networking aspect of Shukoor’s campaign.

“I helped him with all the Facebook activity. When we went door-to-door, we asked people if they had Facebook and if they wanted updates from us. Now he can stay connected with his constituents. He has a lot of friends now,” said Raaheela of her dad’s presence on Facebook.

Shukoor also used websites such as Twitter to tell supporters when and where he was campaigning.

“He would set up meet-and-greets. He wanted to have the constituents be able to meet with him and confront him with the issues they had. These sites helped him publicize the events,” Naseem said.

PGBallot.com was also a part of Shukoor’s campaign.

“Yasmine, another cousin, created PGBallot,” Shabnam said. The website allows voters to “create their ballot and vote for people and submit it. It is easier and more effective.”

Along with familial ties, Raaheela and Shabnam recruited friends to aid in the campaign efforts. Bowie High School sophomore Summer Jones, 15, decided to participate in the campaign by walking in a parade and going polling.

The whole process enlightened Josh Omade, 17, of Bowie, “not just about the political campaign process, but about life in general.”

The Eleanor Roosevelt senior knew Raaheela since the first grade and knew her father was active in politics. When Raaheela approached him about it, Omade said he sat down to look at the issues, looked at Shukoor’s opponent and looked at the issues and policies the candidate stood for.

“I decided that he was the candidate, that if I was of age, I would be voting for,” Omade said.

The student volunteers boast a long list of extracurricular activities including sports, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Math Club, Russian Club, Muslim Student Association, internships at the National Institute of Health and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research — and for Omade and Raaheela—applying to college. With all of these activities stacked up, the teens still made campaigning a priority.

“I didn’t want to pass by one voter without telling them what I had to say,” Raaheela said. “I felt like it was that important that I needed to show them my dad was an option, and that he was a good option for them for state delegate.”