Nearly 100 students, administrators and community friends arrived at UMW’s Cedric Rucker University Center last week for the Virginia Student Voting Summit. The event provides an opportunity to compare notes about initiatives taking place on campuses across the commonwealth and re-energize the effort to get out the vote. Photo by Karen Pearlman.
For Elena Lizarraga of Springfield, Virginia, it was a volunteer stint working the polls in 2016. For Ai Vy Le, a college senior from Harrisonburg, it was walking five miles with her grandmother to cast her first vote.
The question the students were answering – What was your first civic engagement experience? – was part of an icebreaker activity at the seventh annual nonpartisan Virginia Student Voting Summit, held last week at the University of Mary Washington. It’s one of several experiences that led UMW to earn the All In Campus Democracy Challenge’s “Highly Established Action Plan Seal” for developing a nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan for the 2024 election cycle.
The daylong summit promotes civic dialogue and energizes voters, meeting students where they are in the voting process and sharing the information they need to make sure their voices are heard at the polls. Nearly 100 students, administrators and community friends from schools across the commonwealth gathered in the Cedric Rucker University Center’s Chandler Ballroom to advance youth voting. Together, they worked to push public participation by comparing notes and exchanging ideas.
“It brings different perspectives,” said Devin Van Dyke. The Campus Vote Project democracy fellow recently transferred to Radford University from Southwest Virginia Community College and drove six hours from his home in Tazewell to be part of an afternoon panel. “Students from different colleges are coming together to share how they make their initiatives work on their campuses.” Read more.