Senior Profile | Cole Graber-Mitchell
Making His Voice Heard Cole Graber-Mitchell is committed to civic engagement, whether it be as an AAS senator or an opinion columnist. The Marshall Scholar’s world revolves around three principles: persistence, community, and joy. — Sam Spratford ’24 I met Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22 on Webster Circle on one of the first hot days of spring. Wearing a lilac T-shirt proudly emblazoned with the logo of the Amherst College Choral Society, Graber-Mitchell sat across from me with the sun in his eyes, head framed by trees flowering in all shades of pink and purple. It was only months ago that Graber-Mitchell had been awarded a Marshall Scholarship, one of the most prestigious American fellowships, only weeks ago that he had completed his senior thesis in law, jurisprudence, and social thought (LJST), and (most likely) only minutes since he had been attending to one of his many roles in campus politics. In his time at Amherst, Graber-Mitchell has been an AAS senator, a longtime student member of Amherst’s Committee on Educational Policy (CEP), an organizer, an opinion columnist for The Student, and the only college student serving on the Town of Amherst’s Cultural Council; Graber-Mitchell even found time to co-write a book with William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science Austin Sarat. Yet, the ensuing conversation was peaceful, with Graber-Mitchell’s steady and eloquent speech accompanied by the chirping of May birds. What I came to learn is that as much as Graber-Mitchell has devoted his time and energy to the Amherst community over the past four years, it is only because
he has learned to stay tethered to one central principle: joy.
A Minnesotan Political Education The roots of Graber-Mitchell’s political consciousness lie in his Minnesotan upbringing. Attending Minneapolis public schools his whole life, he told me that his high school teachers were the first to open his mind to the troubled and essential world of politics. First, his AP U.S. History teacher assigned the class Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” alongside their standard AP U.S. History textbook. Zinn’s text problematizes the nationalism that you would find in a typical history textbook, and this new lens was integral to Graber-Mitchell’s realization that a lot of work needed to be done to make America a place where all people could flourish. On top of this progressive awareness, Graber-Mitchell described his hometown of Minneapolis as a uniquely civically engaged city, boasting one of the highest voter turnouts in the country. Southwest High School, which Graber-Mitchell attended, was no exception: His teachers were union stewards and campaign volunteers. In this environment, Graber-Mitchell was the recipient of a long-held tradition of civic duty. “I was embedded in this world where the expectation was that you would vote, that you would care,” he said. “And I had role models that showed me how to do
26 | The Amherst Student | May 27, 2022
that.” Integral to Graber-Mitchell’s democratic participation was the realization that he possessed the power to change the things that he saw were wrong in the world. His AP Government teacher taught him the essential maxim: “Decisions are made by those who show up.” And “show up” he did. When Graber-Mitchell campaigned for Minneapolis Attorney General Keith Ellison the summer before coming to Amherst, he was only beginning a long journey of determined civic engagement.
Finding Joy and Voice at Amherst Though Graber-Mitchell told me that he had initial difficulty integrating himself with the Amherst community, it didn’t take long for his instinct for activism to kick in. Graber-Mitchell’s first major political action at Amherst was organizing the 2019 Climate Strike, which successfully pressured the college to commit itself more wholeheartedly to climate action. “Thanks to the strike, we began to receive frequent progress reports on core climate projects, and built coalitions that fought for divestment [from fossil fuels] and a new sustainability director,” he said. But most of Graber-Mitchell’s political life at Amherst has been centered around his participation in more official political roles: He has served as an AAS senator for
Photo courtesy of Cole Graber-Mitchell ’22
Graber-Mitchell has always felt a strong sense of civic duty, and he has never failed to act on it. three years and, more recently, as a member of the Cultural Council in the Town of Amherst. Particularly formative was his two-and-ahalf-year stint as one of the only students serving on the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP): a rotating group of five faculty members, the provost and dean of the faculty, and at most three student members. As a representative of students’ needs, Graber-Mitchell said his time on the CEP challenged him to trust his Minnesotan instinct for civic responsibility and find an authoritative voice among a group of people who would normally be his teachers and superiors. “We all had equal voting power, so I had to learn how to assert my place as an equal member of the committee,” he reflected. “I had to learn that just because someone you respect disagrees with you, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong.” Having joined the CEP just before the onset of the pandemic, Graber-Mitchell was placed in a particularly fraught situation, but
one that was also full of possibilities for him to speak out for students’ needs in a room of people who would not otherwise understand them. For instance, he took the initiative to write up a proposal for a universal flexible grading option (FGO) when classes were remote. “It would not have been right to expect students to use the normal pass/fail option during such an extraordinary time,” Graber-Mitchell asserted, “and we ended up finding much-needed relief for a lot of students.” It is this empathetic drive to help his community find “relief,” and more importantly, joy, that motivates many of Graber-Mitchell’s political commitments. “My politics [are] all based on joy, enjoyment of life — something I think everyone deserves,” Graber-Mitchell said with a smile. But a focus on joy certainly doesn’t preclude having difficult conversations — rather, this end goal motivates Graber-Mitchell to talk about the difficult things.
