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[Interviewer] Welcome to the University of North Georgia Political Science & International Affairs Department's Youtube channel. In this segment of our “Meet Our Alumni” series you'll have the opportunity to meet class of 2019 Political Science major Charlie Barrett. We're chatting with Charlie today to bring our viewers up to date on his achievements since graduation. Achievements which were recognized formally by the ̨Íåswag Alumni Association's Young Alumni Board, which recently named him to this year's 20 under 40 class. We'll get more details on that in a minute, but first, let's meet Charlie.  

Good afternoon and congratulations Charlie on your recent honor from the Alumni Association. 

[Charlie] Thank you, professor. It was an honor to be considered and then selected. I couldn't be more thrilled to start us off. 

[Interviewer] Would you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Who is Charlie Barrett? 

[Charlie] Charlie Barrett, is a young man that has come from the northeast corner of our state. I originally grew up in Gainesville, Georgia. Went to North Hall High School, was always 20 minutes away from Dahlonega and the home base, so to speak. I'm incredibly proud of the region of the state that I'm from. In my career, I've had the ability to travel all over the state of Georgia, to every small town, small no name, 80 population town that you could think of. But truly, Northeast Georgia is a special place and always will be in my heart.

You know, I started off in school, had a lot of different interests. My father was a physical therapist. That's truly where I wanted to pursue a career. Found out I had a fear of blood. So at that point, I kind of decided I needed to find something else. My mother was a special-ed teacher with a great story. She's a couple of years away from retirement. I played a couple of sports growing up, and then I found out that I was a little bit too slow for the varsity basketball team at North Hall High School, so decided to go of and start working. Began a job at Kroger, cutting meat and working in the dairy department as well, stock and milk, and really got a good solid ethic there, and ended up working almost part-time while I was in high school, and would always continue to hold various sorts of jobs and odd jobs all the way through my college career. And sometimes I feel like even in my professional career, I'm about the same way. 

[Interviewer] You came to ̨Íåswag almost a decade ago now. Why did you choose to seek your undergraduate degree not only in Political Science, but also with a concentration in pre-Law?  Perhaps most importantly, why here in North Georgia? 

[Charlie] Again, my father was a physical therapist, and he graduated -- he was actually the first inaugural class for the physical therapy program at the University of North Georgia. I wanted to follow his footsteps. He had a small physical therapy business in Gainesville, where I'm from and I really wanted to pursue that career. Found out relatively quickly inside of my undergraduate experience in the early days of me getting involved and starting to pursue regular classes for the pre-Med I guess, or maybe pre-PT track, that I was not a big fan of blood, I was actually kind of squeamish and always had an interest in communicating with people; always had a interest in trying to mediate and solve problems. I did that amongst my friends when I was in school. I felt like that I always wanted to have something to contribute to my family discussions, and so I began to think maybe I could be an attorney. I always liked growing up watching, you know, some prominent attorneys as well. So I figured maybe I’d try my hand in the legal field.

The University of North Georgia has always been dear to my heart because my parents are both alumni from the University of North Georgia, and my grandfather as well, on my father's side an alumnus, and my great grandfather was an alumni back when it was the Agricultural College. I mean, this has been the wee hours of, I guess ̨Íåswag’s existence. So, my great, great, great grandfather, and you know, we grew up going to Dahlonega for Gold Rush. We grew up eating out in Dahlonega, going to restaurants, being so close to the house that I just, I loved the environment where the campus felt like. It was a small campus, but with a big feel, if you can pick upon what I'm saying that I felt like that I could be someone at the University of North Georgia, that really could be a big fish in a small pond and have opportunities that may have been overlooked by me. Or maybe I would have been overlooked for at a larger institution such as the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, you name it. So it drew me in because of the people that I had in my life, but also the way that the campus positions itself.

I remember during my orientation, as well as during my college campus visits when I was attending as a high school senior. I love the motto that ̨Íåswag Leads. I always liked the concept of leadership. I was a big self-help book junkie. When I was growing up, I saw the motto, I got to meet the people During my orientation, I got to see the campus, of course, the great military institution being Georgia's Senior Military College. Walking through the campus on tours and seeing the Corps of Cadets performing drills on the drill field, hearing the cannon fire over my head. Even when I was just eating out, when I was a young kid, I remember sitting at Caruso's, a restaurant that's no longer in existence in Downtown Dahlonega where Spirits is now and asking my mom what that noise was and it just, it all came together in such a nice way where it made the decision for me incredibly easy. And in all reality, I had no idea how much of an impact that those initial findings that I had would guide me throughout the rest of my career. How the concept of ̨Íåswag leads became so important to me. 

[Interviewer] You're now working as Senator Kennedy's Chief of Staff. Looking back over your journey from a high school student in Hall County to a Senate staffer, what did your Political Science degree do? Also, what is it doing for you in your current position? How did it equip you for what you have accomplished in your life so far? 

[Charlie] I think the benefit of the Political Science degree inside of a legislative job, which is what I do now, but before this, I know we'll get into it, but I also did communications and a little campaign work as well, or advocacy work as well, and being able to be inside of the political science realm underneath the Political Science Department at the University allowed me to not only meet some fantastic people who I was able to meet later on, again in the future, who also went off to do careers inside of governments or politics, but really the benefit of the education that I received at ̨Íåswag allowed me to begin some of the concepts that again, I guess eventually formulate into thoughts and opinions about government and politics. And not only did I have the baseline level of knowledge that I received from my undergraduate degree to start forming those opinions and start forming those concepts. Although broad and probably a little misguided being how young I was, but in my head it allowed me to have discussions with not only the professor  of the classes that I sat in, but my peers, and that was really important because there's a way that communications between staff members, between members, between staff and members working inside of the legislature, working inside of issue/advocacy campaigns happened, It is always more than surface level and you want to have a large amount of context when you start making stands and making positions regarding an issue, right? Or regarding a priority that you may want to put in front of people for consideration, and through the experience that I received at the University, I was able to have those discussions in advance of my career, where I was able to learn how to articulate and sound intelligent and deliver facts and deliver points to decision makers and others because I was already doing that, working in small groups, working in projects, working on papers and term papers, negotiating with my professors on how those would eventually end up and how those were going to be considered.

I think that it's not only the skill or the information that I was able to receive and then articulate, but it's also the soft skills that were really fostered by the environment, the classroom environment, the relationship between the student and the professor inside of classrooms at the University of North Georgia. That gave me a leg up from other students that may be trying to get into the positions that I was able to get into -- in itself is worth its weight and gold. 

[Interviewer] As I mentioned in the introduction earlier, you were recently honored by our Alumni Association. Can you please tell us a little bit about the 20 under 40 program as you understand it? 

[Charlie] Yes, 20 under 40 program is a fantastic program that the ̨Íåswag Young Alumni Association has put together. I know that this is incredibly popular working in politics specifically; it's always a big deal when you see someone that you may or may not know named as the Georgia trend person of the year. I'm trying to think the insider advantage person of the year, the lobbyist or legislator of the year, and in that same vein, I think that this concept that the ̨Íåswag Young Alumni Association has put together really allows ̨Íåswag to not only showcase their alumni that have gone off to do fantastic things and gives them a good platform within the program to tell their story, but it also allows us ̨Íåswag young alumni for when students leave the university and receive their education and go out into the workforce to continue to build a network of like-minded people or people with similar career interest or career pathways that also have received some sort of success as decided and voted upon by the ̨Íåswag Young Alumni Board, so it's twofold, and it's all beneficial for folks that are ̨Íåswag alumni and are considering or have been nominated for this award, and for this program. 

[Interviewer] You are one of four members of the PSIA family to receive this recognition from the Association -- two last year and two this year. What does your receipt of this award or this recognition mean to you? 

[Charlie] You know, it really was a joy to even hear that I had been nominated. I was one of the youngest recipients of the award, which in itself to me, really meant a lot and very, very, very proud of it, and I guess it meant a little more to me as well because, you know, when I was coming and many alumni, I felt this way. It's not just me, but when I was coming through and especially when you're starting to work or trying to figure out where you want to work and then also trying to pursue a career in those fields. You will hear from everybody around you. Employers during internships that will so and so in this organization, this job, they only consider applicants from other universities, right? You hear these things about how you're not good enough, and especially inside of, I guess the best way to put it, especially inside of an arts and humanities degree and an arts and humanities field where you're not dealing with hard sciences, math, numbers, engineering. You always want to make sure that you have to be heads and shoulders above the rest, because you can't just do a test in front of you, you can't just write a written exam and then prove that you are qualified for the job. You have to have a very diverse skill set and understand issues and understand how things are to be communicated. Being a political science major, and then being able to have success and be able to get a position, position inside of government or have a good career, so to speak.

It means the world to be considered to also be nominated to a small select group of people that the alumni board thought was worthy of these awards. And I think that you'll have, and you'll see folks inside of the program that have gone on to do far more amazing things than just working in state government or even achieving a higher post inside of state government. These people that I got to meet when I was awarded the award -- it's truly incredible some of the stories, but coming from how hard it is and how hard you have to work if you're pursuing a career in political science or in government. In order to just be considered, and then to be selected among a group of your peers to be 20 of them for the year as a 20 under 40 recipient. It is all the more special. 

[Interviewer] In closing, Charlie, what do you have to say to our viewers, who are either prospective students or former students, either undergraduate or graduate? 

[Charlie] The University of North Georgia instilled in me the work ethic, the values, and it prepared me for a fantastic career --even better outlook on my future. There are so many ̨Íåswag alumni that are involved in the field that I currently work in. When I was getting involved inside of the legislative process and in politics and government -- the governor of Georgia, Governor Deal, was a ̨Íåswag alumni. The speaker of the Georgia House, Speaker David Ralston, was a ̨Íåswag alumni The lieutenant governor of the state of Georgia was a ̨Íåswag alumni and the majority whip was also. And all kinds of other legislators and all kinds of other professionals inside of my field. There's a reason why you see the alumni of the University of North Georgia in these top posts all around the state, and I'm sure as well around the country, and it's because ̨Íåswag  truly does lead -- the small class sizes, the way that you were able to connect with your peers, the way that you were able to connect with your professor, the way that you're not just a number at the University of North Georgia gives you the ability to foster knowledge and lasting relationships and truly get the most out of the education that's in front of you. You're not going through the motions. You're learning a culture, you're learning values, and you're also learning the curriculum that you're setting out to learn and you're having fun while you're doing it. It has been the honor of a lifetime to one be considered for the award. It has been the honor of a lifetime to be a University of North Georgia alumni. And it is a place, and it is a time in my life that I hold incredibly dear and will never forget. 

[Interviewer] Well, I want to thank you for your time, Charlie. I know you're a busy man, especially with the new legislative session getting ready to kick off. Congratulations again on being recognized as one of ̨Íåswag's outstanding young alumni. I sincerely hope you'll continue to #experiencemore, as we say, with the help of your degree from our Political Science & International Affairs Department. 

[Charlie] I plan to. Thank you, professor, for your time. I appreciate it, and to all of the viewers out there, go Nighthawks. And if we can ever be of any assistance to you at the Capitol, come by and see us.