From across the United States, protesters descended upon the nation’s capital, and several university students joined in the cries for peace, a participatory democracy and a redistribution of American wealth.

People traveled from across the country to camp out in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza and march through the streets of Washington — “people united will never be defeated,” “vote for peace not war” — as a part of the Occupy and Stop the Machine protests. Many in attendance said they felt a strong sense of solidarity and hoped the protests would serve as a springboard to ending U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, alleviating poverty and improving health care, education and the environment.

“It was a really life-changing and eye-opening experience to see what it looks like to build a revolution,” said sophomore communication major Danielle Orellana, who attended Occupy D.C.’s Thursday kickoff.

Members of a new student group at this university, United Youth Movement, attended the Stop the Machine protest Friday evening at Freedom Plaza, a few blocks away from Occupy D.C. The event has been planned since June and coincidentally coincided with Occupy D.C., which is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York that has protested uneven distributions of wealth and other economic and political issues.

The seven UYM students said they chose to spend their Friday evening to advocate pulling American soldiers out of war.

“We want to see how we can work together to get actual results done — whether it be on campus, in the community or at the federal level,” said junior English major Rutvij Pandya. “We want the structure not to be so biased against people not in the top 1 percent [of the nation’s wealth].”

The group is hoping to take momentum from the Washington protests to spur more activism in the university community.

“Activism is so rare that it can’t even make a difference anymore,” said UYM founder Mo Farshneshani, a junior government and politics major. “It’s so sporadic and split up; we can’t even accomplish anything. Basically, what we are here for is to demand new economic and political structures, so things like today’s situation don’t happen in the future.”

Thousands congregated at the Occupy D.C. protest this weekend, presenting a united front to the federal government, according to Michael Patterson, an Iraq War veteran from Alaska.

Patterson, who has camped out in McPherson Square for three days, said the protest’s main goal is to make both politicians and “regular people” aware of its issues. He said the group is fulfilling this goal.

“Most Americans are aware now,” he said. “It’s just inconvenient for them to know the truth.”

“This is the start of our revolution. Anyone that says otherwise is kidding themselves,” said Maria Mullin, a freshman history major at York College of Pennsylvania. Mullin camped out at McPherson Square on Saturday night; she cooked 10 pounds of spaghetti at her parents’ house to feed her fellow protesters.

Some students said they felt a connection to the protests because the issues discussed will affect their future.

“College kids don’t realize how bad things are — it’s easy to be disillusioned,” said Matt Hamblin, a freshman government major at Georgetown University who attended the Stop the Machine protest. “As long as we aren’t active, the government can continue to be complacent with us students having lots of debt, while they bail out banks and big companies.”

And the revolution to create change starts now, Farshneshani said.

“The first step is to unite everyone; the second step is to get involved, speak out and make a difference.”

romas@umdbk.com