David White said community involvement has provided him with invaluable life experience.

The senior political science major has been involved with organizations across campus as he seeks to gain more experience, and he encourages other students to do the same while at NIU.

Northern Star: What are you involved in on campus?

David White: I’m part of the honors program. I’m also going to be running to be a senator on the [Student Association] this year. Also, I’m involved in the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, which is a coed fraternity … . I work in NIU’s Poultry Science Department [where] I feed chickens a couple times a week, which is a really interesting part of life, and I also work at the Student Involvement and Leadership Development Office.

NS: It sounds like you do a lot of work. Why is that?

DW: I just like really being involved on campus; I think it’s sort of a central part of the campus experience. You get out a lot of what you give in, so it doesn’t make sense to go somewhere and not experience everything that you can. I would completely recommend doing everything you can and anything you love because you meet a lot of awesome people and [that] makes your experience so much more worthwhile.

NS: You said you’re running for senator. Are you planning on running for office one day?

DW: You know, it’s not out of the question. I’d like to one day maybe work with politics in some capacity, but … that’s something I don’t want to think about until 20 or 30 years from now until I’ve had a chance to live life.

NS: What do you want to do in the meantime?

DW: I’m hoping to go to law school. There’s one in Portland, Ore., called Lewis and Clark Law School, and I would really love to do their environmental law program. It’s one of the best in the country. I am really passionate about the environment and trying to be green, so I’m really hoping for that.

NS: What do you hope to accomplish with a law degree?

DW: Basically, either making some types of reforms in the country to move more toward either electric cars if they’re Tesla or maybe perhaps put more sanctions on the … pollution that is made because there is quite a bit. We’ve got one Earth, it’s four and a half billion years old and we’re halfway through its life cycle and we’re using resources at a stupendous rate. We’re the reason that climate change happens, so we’re sort of ruining and wrecking the planet.