Kurshan was a participant in the civil rights and peace movements as far back as high school. During her college years in Madison, Wisconsin, she was a member of Friends of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and CORE, and participated in the first demonstration against the Vietnam War in Washington, DC in April 1965.
As a high school student, Kurshan was involved in social activism. In college, she became part of groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE, and took part in a major protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. that year.