Courtesy of Julia Lin
Julia Lin began volunteering last year with RepresentUs, a nonpartisan organization working to prevent political corruption and gerrymandering. Now she’s one of the leaders of the group’s Meme Team, which creates funny, eye-catching images to call attention to what’s going on. (Some of the team’s recent memes have compared the bizarre shapes of gerrymandered districts to Pokémon characters, for example.) For Julia, one of the most rewarding parts of the work is getting to know other volunteers, who often bring unique perspectives to the community. “We have people from [all over] the political spectrum, and they all come together,” she says. “It’s a nice break to see that people can still work together in this country and it’s not just political division.”