The following was written by alumnus Marcel Van Hattem and is featured in SFL’s first Quarterly Report.

In 2013, I was living in the Netherlands studying for my second Masters degree in Journalism, with no plans to go back to Brazil. In 2014, I ran for state representative in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil’s southernmost state, and won the election with 35,345 votes. What happened in such a short period of time? Students For Liberty has a lot to do with my lifechanging decision to go back to my country and to politics.

I had been a city counselor, elected at age 18, in my hometown of Dois Irmãos, RS. After having run twice for a seat in Parliament (in 2006 and 2010), I decided to give up on politics. Specifically, I made that decision after reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, in the wake of the 2010 election. I thought that I was not born for politics, bureaucracy, or public service (or at least it made me think so). After all, I was born and raised in a family of entrepreneurs and taught that there is one thing very important in life: merit. So, how could I ever have thought of engaging in politics, where merit is usually despised and replaced by tit-for-tat and pat-on-the-back negotiations?

I left my political past behind, in Brazil, and decided to go abroad to live, earn a Masters degree in Political Science, and start my own business. While there, I participated in the first European Students For Liberty Conference and engaged with libertarian ideas and people. By the end of 2013, I was still in Europe, while Brazil was going to enter its 12th consecutive year of a far left government whose disastrous consequences are still being felt. Brazil was experiencing an economic slowdown while crime and the cost of living were exploding. There was not much hope in the air. In fact, people were so desperate that they started to go out to the streets that year. This changed everything.

The ideas of freedom, in spite of the terrible political environment—or perhaps BECAUSE of it—were boiling up in Brazil. And fast! Many friends started to convince me that it was time to return to Brazil and engage politically with the ideas that were spreading in schools and universities thanks to Estudantes Pela Liberdade (EPL) and inspiring demonstrations against the government. They eventually convinced me that I should return to Brazil, help spread libertarian ideas, and eventually run again for office. There would finally be a real chance for a libertarian to make it to the State Assembly in the following year, 2014, when general elections were scheduled.

My campaign was not your typical one of stump speeches and rallies. It was a campaign of lectures. I was invited by EPL clubs across the state to speak in their meetings at universities. Besides getting the chance to talk about my ideas on those occasions, I had the chance to hear students who will lead the next generation in Brazil. Most importantly, I was being assured that there was, indeed, hope in the future. Dozens of volunteers, many of them EPL members, supported and even helped in my campaign, distributing pamphlets on the streets, sharing my posts on the social media, and talking about my candidacy to their friends, acquaintances, and relatives.

Thank you, Students For Liberty. Without you, I would not have believed. And without you, I would not be back in Brazil, trying to put my state and my country back on the track toward freedom! Thank you, SFL, for reassuring me that I do not want to live in another country. I want to live in another Brazil —a prosperous, democratic, and FREE Brazil!