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Founded by law students in 2009, the advocacy group has introduced legislation and testified before both chambers of Congress. Now it's learning its limits.
It's the final day of negotiations over the controversial "gainful employment" rule, and Rory O'Sullivan, the sole student representative on the panel, is getting frustrated.
For weeks leading up to the December hearing, he has been politely urging the U.S. Department of Education to write a rule that puts students' interests first. Now, at the 11th hour, the department has agreed to a trio of changes sought by for-profit colleges that would weaken the rule, intended to tie colleges' eligibility for federal aid to their borrowers' ability to repay their debt.
Mr. O'Sullivan, the policy and research director for Young Invincibles, doesn't hide his disillusionment. Normally calm and polished, he becomes visibly upset, his voice rising and face reddening.
"Before I was involved in this process, I had some idea that the department would care what students think," he tells the panel. "That has not been the case."
"It has," he finishes, "been quite an education."
For Mr. O'Sullivan and Young Invincibles, a youth-advocacy group that represents 18- to 34-year-olds, it's the latest lesson in how Washington works.
Four years after it was founded by a pair of Georgetown law students who wanted a say in the nation's health-care debate, Young Invincibles has grown into one of the largest, most influential youth-advocacy groups in Washington. With friends in the White House and the backing of wealthy foundations, the group has gained a seat at the table in national debates over health care, student aid, and youth unemployment.
In the past two years, the group has been asked to introduce legislation, tapped to testify before both chambers of Congress, and picked over more established student groups for federal rule-making panels.
Yet as Young Invincibles matures, and extends its reach from the nation's capital into state legislatures, its leaders are also discovering the limits of their influence, and the challenges of representing a demographic that spans 16 years and every level of education, from high-school dropouts to Ph.D.'s.
Young Invincibles started with modest goals. Aaron Smith and Ari Matusiak, then third-year law students at Georgetown University, felt that young people weren't being heard...