Donyel Howell

BMC | Console Operator |Dorchester, MA

Donyel Howell is a writer and recording artist at heart. When he started working at Boston Medical Center less than a year ago, he looked at his new job as a console operator as great way to pay the bills, find time to work on his art, and be with his 11-year-old son. 

Then his older brother, 1199SEIU political organizer Tyrek Lee, mentioned Camp Wellstone, a training program for political activism. "The very first time I every voted in a national election was just to keep Bush out," says Donyel. "That was my only motivation."
 
The 2004 election outcome was motivation enough for Donyel to attend the three-day training and find out for himself what political organizing was about, even though he never really thought of himself as wanting to be involved in politics.  

Somewhere between the opening night-which Donyel attended after working a double shift-and the closing remarks quoting Dr. Martin Luther King's call to action, Donyel discovered an essential fact that opened his mind to the possibility of politics. "I learned that more than any presentation skill, politics is about having conversation. The streets and politics is the same thing. You have to able to talk.   If you can put motivation in someone else, you are going places."