Asociația de Reprezentare și Proiecte Diplomatice: What 127 Email Taught Me about Civic Engagement

It was 2:30 a.m., and while everyone else slept, my inbox failed me again.

For weeks, I spent many late nights drafting partnership proposals and reaching out to organizations I admired. Each email sent represented a different opportunity, a new connection, a compelling initiative, and a chance to help connect young people to civic engagement opportunities worldwide. But more often than not, my inbox responded the same way: silence. In total, I had sent around 127 proposals. Yet, I received virtually no replies.

At first, it was easy to see every unanswered email as direct evidence that the initiative was failing. How could a student in Washington even believe they could reach someone oceans away?

Looking back, I realize that those emails taught me one of the most important lessons about civic engagement: participation often begins before anyone else answers.

Too often, people celebrate civic involvement only when it produces tangible results: a successful campaign, the adoption of a new policy, or a community-proposed initiative that quickly gains traction. Far less recognition goes to the quiet, early steps taken long before these results: reaching out, building connections, and choosing to participate despite layers of uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the distinction is significant. Although many people understand the importance of public service, far fewer feel ready to participate actively. In Romania, a 2024 study by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung found that more than 43% of the country’s youth reported no active participation in civic or municipal activity. Interestingly, although Romania often discusses this challenge, a parallel 2024 study by America’s Promise Alliance revealed similar signs of civic disengagement among youth in the United States. Although 9 out of 10 participants agreed that civic education is valuable among youth audiences, only 4 out of 10 reported feeling prepared to engage in and lead such activities. These statistics raise an important question: if so many individuals recognize the significance of civic participation, why do so few choose to engage?

At first, the results may appear to be indifferent. However, the reality itself is often more complex.

Through my work with Asociația de Reprezentare și Proiecte Diplomatice (ARPD), I learned that youth disengagement isn’t inevitable. Rather, it is a challenge that arises when young people lack access to the opportunities they believe they can contribute to.

When I first became involved with ARPD, it wasn’t years of experience in international relations or foreign affairs that pushed me to reach out. It was simply the decision that followed the desire to contribute to something larger than myself. As a Romanian-American student, I was searching for ways to stay connected to the place that shaped so much of my identity. I quickly discovered that ARPD fostered an environment where participation mattered more than prior experience. There, students worked together to coordinate committees, negotiate competing priorities, and develop programs that encouraged further discussion.

Through ARPD, one of the most valuable lessons that I learned is that civic engagement isn’t a solitary practice, and that complex challenges rarely offer simple solutions. Whether working on a partnership proposal, developing an outreach strategy, or organizing an educational conference, progress came through collaboration. Often, success came when individuals moved beyond advocating for their own perspectives and embraced diverse voices, inclusive priorities, and relationships with people from different backgrounds.

That said, regardless of current initiatives, not every individual has opportunities to engage civically in their community, something no single program can solve. Recognizing this gap can help contribute to the larger effort to narrow the divide between civic involvement and intentional youth participation.

While organizing one of Romania’s youth-led Model United Nations conferences, TimisoaraMUN, I found that when young people are given the opportunity to participate-many do. When they are given the responsibility to lead-many lead with ardor. And when they can meaningfully contribute to their community and explore the world around them, they develop skills that extend far beyond any single individual or organization.

Experiences like these suggest civic disengagement among youth isn't inevitable.

Perhaps the most important lesson I learned through ARPD about civic engagement is that meaningful participation doesn’t always begin with a vote, a campaign, or a policy. In fact, it rarely ever does. Instead, it begins with a question, an observation, or many emails that might never receive a reply.

The organizations I contacted were never obligated to reply. In fact, many never did. But looking back, I no longer see those unanswered emails as failures. Instead, they remind me that civic participation isn’t solely discovered through outcomes. But rather, they remind me of the desire to participate despite the uncertainty.

That drive and willingness to reach out, collaborate, and try is the root of meaningful civic engagement. Long before the change becomes visible, civic participation begins with the desire to try.

Catarina Pirvu is a high school student from Washington State serving as Director of ARPD Washington and Presidential Advisor for ARPD, a youth-led organization dedicated to diplomacy, international affairs, and civic engagement.