Orit Sklar

Politics have been part of Orit Sklar’s life since she was a young girl sitting at her dinner table, where the discussion regularly turned to politics.  Little did she know that those talks would set the stage for her becoming part of the fight for free speech on college campuses.

Sklar, now 27, later joined the Georgia Tech College Republicans and began attending conservative events such as the 2004 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which served as a catalyst for her involvement in conservative political activism on campus.

“Through my activism, I became personally familiar with the liberals’ intolerance for shutting down speech they disagreed with,” Sklar said.

In 2006, Sklar became a co-plaintiff with fellow Red Alert Politics “30 Under 30” awardee Ruth Malhotra in a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia Institute of Technology, and three other unconstitutional policies.

Sklar, who graduated in 2007, was blacklisted on campus and received an onslaught of violent threats and was put under police supervision. She won her lawsuit in 2008. The American Conservative Union recognized her and Malhotra with the Ronald Reagan award at CPAC in 2009.

“It really opened my eyes to the types of obstacles we are facing,” Sklar said.

The lawsuit changed Sklar’s life. In college she studied civil engineering, but chose to pursue a career in political fundraising and communications instead.

“My advice always to young conservative activists is to be principled and never waiver from what’s right,” she said. “People think compromise is a good thing. Compromising your values never gets us anywhere. And liberals are never compromising.”