Watch the video below to learn more about Royce Mann, Rise Georgia’s Deputy Director!

My name is Royce Mann. I use pronouns he, him, his, and I’m RISE’s Georgia Deputy Director, as well as a student graduating next spring.

How did you get involved in community organizing?

I’ve been involved in community organizing for about seven years now. I first got active in the March for our Lives movement fighting against the epidemic of gun violence, then got involved in Amnesty International doing human rights advocacy. What inspired me to really get involved in this work was seeing my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother worked her entire career at the intersection of public policy and education and was a major advocate for ensuring that every student had access to a high quality education. My mom continued that legacy being involved in them, and that led me to Rise. Rise’s mission really resonates with me because Rise is focused on ensuring that every student has the resources and access that they need to not only succeed personally, but also find the power that they have as change makers in the community.

Why are you excited about working with Rise?

I’m really excited to work at Rise because Rise is an organization that supports growth in young people. It is not only about achieving policy wins, but Rise is focused on ensuring that the young people who work with the organization gain skills to be leaders in their community for decades to come, and that’s what I’m really most excited about – being able to leverage the skills that I’ve learned to help other young people realize and discover the power that they have as advocates.

Why is it important for young people to build our political power?

It’s important that we as young people build our political power because young people have been at the center of some of our countries and the world’s most impactful and successful social movements. I think of one of my biggest inspirations, Congressman John Lewis, who was my congressman growing up here in Georgia, and at age 23, he helped to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice. Knowing that young people have always been able to be the moral compass of this nation and of the world just shows that if we don’t build political power, then we will not be able to achieve the change that we want to see.

What do people get wrong or assume about Gen Z? What do you think is your generation’s superpower?

One thing that I think a lot of people get wrong about my generation, Gen Z, is that we are constantly distracted, wasting our time on social media and with technology. But the fact is, we are using these tools to create the change that we want to see. We’re using technology and social media to help spread important messages, raise awareness about important issues, get our peers engaged, and so I think that actually technology and social media is my generation’s superpower. We are leveraging it in a new way, being innovative and creative and using it for good. 2024 is a pivotal year for the future of not only our nation, but the entire world. My message to my peers is that it is so important that we vote, not just for president, but all the way down the ballot. So many of the most important decisions that affect our lives are being made at city halls and state capitals across the country.

What message do you have for your peers and why should they vote in 2024?

I urge you to research which offices you’re eligible to vote for, research the candidates, see if there are candidates that resonate with you, who have platforms that address the issues you care about, and if there aren’t, then reach out to those candidates and demand that they finally start caring about what you care about.