An interview with Howard University Political Science major Anyea Fields — my great niece — makes clear why the labor movement must strengthen its presence on college campuses. As unions look to the future, student organizers like Anyea represent the next generation of labor leadership — rooted in lived experience, collective action, and a commitment to justice.
Anyea learned early that many systems are not designed to protect working families. Raised in a single-parent household after the loss of her father, she watched her mother navigate institutions that repeatedly failed to meet her needs. Those experiences shaped her understanding of policy failure and reinforced a lesson long understood by organized labor: without collective power, working people are left vulnerable.
Service was always central to Anyea’s upbringing. Every Saturday at a local food pantry, she witnessed the hardship people carried with them as they walked in and the dignity restored as they walked out. That contrast taught her a powerful truth that resonates deeply with union values — charity can ease immediate pain, but lasting protection comes from organized advocacy, strong legislation, and systems built to work for the people.
Today, Anyea is putting those principles into practice at Howard University through the National Council of Negro Women, where she serves on the Community Service Committee. In this role, she helps organize, plan, and lead service initiatives while mobilizing fellow students to engage with their community. The skills she is developing — organizing people, building coalitions, communicating effectively, and leading with purpose — are the same skills that sustain strong unions and successful labor campaigns.
Anyea’s goal is to bring student organizing into legislative and labor spaces, helping craft policies that treat food security, healthcare access, and women’s rights as fundamental human rights rather than temporary fixes. She understands that unions and student movements share a common mission: transforming individual struggle into collective strength.
For Anyea, leadership means turning hardship into preparation and curiosity into action. Her story is a reminder that the labor movement’s future will be shaped not only at bargaining tables, but on campuses where young organizers are learning to fight for dignity, equity, and a voice at work and in society.
“Everyone faces a struggle,” she says, “but not everyone has an advocate. I’ve decided to be that advocate.”
