HSDA Member Spotlight: Jeeva Senthilnathan
PARKER, CO, March 26, 2020 — Colorado High School Democrat State Officer, Jeeva Senthilnathan, called out her elected officials as to the decisions they have made regarding the coronavirus. So far, there have been 53 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the area of Douglas County, Colorado. Just yesterday, elected officials, Representatives Kim Ransom, Mark Baisley, Patrick Neville, Kevin Van Winkle, and Senators Chris Holbert and Jim Smallwood signed a letter written to the Douglas County Commissioners to end relationships with the Tri-County Health Department. In frustration, Senthilnathan responded to elected officials after having a chat with her peers at school. Her message was to use common sense, further allowing decisions made by medical professionals without the legislators’ permission.
“None of these legislators have a medical degree or any knowledge of what the coronavirus really is, but suddenly have the audacity to make medical decisions to remove Douglas County from the counties under the stay-at-home order,” said Senthilnathan.
“It’s quite a stupid decision, considering the fact that Senator Jim Smallwood also tested positive for coronavirus. It seems quite dumb that he blames medical professionals for his inability to social distance correctly,” answered Senthilnathan in response to Smallwood’s statement that “despite how valuable social distancing is in this difficult time, and despite [his] best efforts to follow the advice of medical professionals, [he] still contracted COVID-19 from an unknown source.”
The Colorado native also blasted the elected officials’ irrational decision and inappropriate behavior to go against Tri-County Health Officials, who readily agreed with the decision to shut schools down all around the world for student safety. She voiced her difficulty as a senior in high school for not being able to enjoy “prom” or have her “graduation moment”. In the time of the crisis, she hopes that these elected officials will hear her plea to allow Douglas County back on the Stay-At-Home order created by Tri-County Health Department for the protection of the people.
Senthilnathan also addressed the unacceptable conduct by the Board of County Commissioners (Partridge, Laydon, and Thomas) to count DCF Guns, a gun shop in Castle Rock, as an “essential business” at such a time. “People can’t go out anywhere, and they can’t go to a shooting range. What are they gonna do, shoot the virus?” jokes Senthilnathan.
“It’s quite ridiculous that we are struggling to do deliveries for essentials but can easily do ammo delivery for absolutely no reason in Douglas County. It’s another reason to advertise for hate; for something that is not needed right now, or ever. DCF Guns is really giving people a reason to waste their money. I’m just here to make people aware of what’s going on,” Senthilnathan explains.
She also included a statement to Congressman Ken Buck about his tweet addressing former Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Beto O’Rourke. “[Gun violence] is truly affecting Douglas County, especially after the incident at STEM,” says Senthilnathan in regards to the STEM high school shooting that took place on May 7th, 2019.
She also goes on to criticize Congressman Ken Buck for voting against the Coronavirus Relief Bill, H.R.6201, that passed in Congress. Unhappy with the results from current elected officials, Senthilnathan confirms that she will be moving forward with a vote for current Democratic candidates Isaac McCorkle for CO’s 4th District in Congress, Kyra Storojev for State House District 44, Lisa Neal-Graves for County Commissioner, and Elissa Stransky Flaumenhaft for Senate District 30. She also supports Katie Barrett for State House District 45. “It’s truly a loss for them to not receive support from young voters like me,” concludes Senthilnathan.
Jeeva Senthilnathan is a seventeen-year-old high school senior in Parker, Colorado who is intensely passionate about government and politics, and widely known for her volunteering in the community. She started getting civically engaged and volunteered as a political campaign manager when she was a junior in high school for Democratic Candidate Simone Aiken, State House District 44 in 2018, one of the reddest areas in the area of Douglas County. Aiken canvassed on Senthilnathan’s door, and just happen to be lucky to have such a young, dedicated student help her out. Even though she didn’t win in 2018, Senthilnathan stated that she was proud to set up events for her like phone banking, canvassing, and meet and greets where Aiken was able to get up to nearly 43% in votes. Senthilnathan set up a high school candidate forum with nearby running candidates in the county as well. “Even though I didn’t receive large support from the Douglas County School District, I am proud I was able to reach out and get other youths civically engaged,” says Senthilnathan. The next year, students from Ponderosa High School hosted a candidate forum, and Senthilnathan expressed her relief that she was able to lead and leave her mark in the community.
Impressed with her work, she was offered an internship from Democratic Candidate Barrett Rothe State House District 43. He led her to become a legislative aide and intern for State Representative Tom Sullivan House District 37 in her spring semester of junior year. Senthilnathan states, “I felt the pain of Rep. Sullivan everyday in his office, his pain of a father losing his son to gun violence, in the Aurora Theatre Shooting, but I am glad to have sit through that experience with Rep. Sullivan. He truly provided me opportunity to learn about DNC Votebuilder, MiniVan, and Tracer.”
Alongside Senthilnathan’s job, she was offered the House Majority Project Fellowship and joined the Color Latina LIPS Program. While doing both, she learned how to run state and federal campaigns successfully through lenses like the importance of reproductive justice. She became involved in March For Our Lives, Student’s Demand Action, and also leads as one of Colorado’s Climate Strike Leaders. After seeing her incredible work on campaigns within the state of Colorado, she not only received the youth volunteer of the year award for Douglas County but was also nominated and voted by Colorado for the Murphy Roberts Award, which will be awarded at the 2020 Obama Dinner by the Colorado Democratic Party chair, Morgan Carroll.
Senthilnathan continues to be successful and has been working on her own youth PAC, called High School Politics (HS Polls) to have a legislator from the ages of 16–18 in all forms of government. She also recently won a grant of $1,900 from Executive Director of Blue Future, Nick Guthman to help flip Colorado’s 4th Congressional District blue. On top of this, by surprise, Senthilnathan received by mail, the President’s Volunteer Service Award and letter from the White House, signed by President Donald Trump, for which she claims, “helping elect the Do-Nothing Democrats.”
Alongside politics, Jeeva enjoys participating in engineering competitions at her school. She has received 1st place in the Future Technology and Engineering Teacher event at the TSA state competition, qualifying her to compete at nationals hosted at Nashville, Tennessee this year. Senthilnathan also entered the Denver Metro Regional Science Fair, with a focus on her project for mental health. She measured academic pressure on students using electroencephalography (EEG) waves to detect childhood trauma concentrating on behavioral and educational factors after seeing a rise in school shootings, mental health legislation passed by students, and a rise in youth vaping around the country.
This year, Senthilnathan is also running to be a DNC Delegate for Senator Bernie Sanders, and hopes to win the hearts of many citizens in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
UPDATE, June 1, 2020 — Senthilnathan ran as a delegate for Senator Bernie Sanders at the district level in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District with 49 votes, making her the only female successful in the delegate election. Alongside her, Shaun Sindelman, who Jeeva considers as a mentor, currently sits as the senate district chair, and also won the CD4 delegate election for Bernie Sanders. After Jeeva receives her HS diploma and associate’s degree together, she plans to get her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in another two years at Colorado School of Mines and then hopes to get a masters in business administration, and a J.D. After dreaming of becoming a mother, Jeeva laughs saying “I also want to pursue a Ph.D., but only if I have time.”
