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.”
Presented by UMW’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project, the summit also drew representatives from Germanna Community College, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University and Virginia Tech.
Members of UMW Votes – the student organization charged with educating Mary Washington students about such tasks as how to vote early, sign up for absentee ballots and get rides to the polls – served in various roles throughout the day. Earlier this year UMW Votes earned a Fund for Mary Washington Impact Grant to rent a trolley to transport students to the polls on Election Day.
“My parents pushed me to believe that voting is important,” said UMW junior Jorrin Casa de Calvo, who earned a spot on the 2024 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for his efforts to get out the vote, speaking to first-year students and various classes, tabling across campus and more. “If you don’t vote, you’re kind of going against the rights that people from the past fought for.”
Representatives from such entities as the City of Fredericksburg Office of Voter Registration and Elections, UpVote Virginia and UMW Votes delivered presentations. Ice-breakers, table-top exercises and breakout sessions were followed by a keynote presentation by student panelists and the Civic Spirit Awards, with UMW taking the top spot. Mary Washington also earned gold status from the All In Campus Democracy Challenge for its student turnout rate at the polls during both the 2020 presidential election (79 percent) and the 2022 midterm elections (43 percent).
That’s all great news to CCE Director Sarah Dewees, who summed up the day: “It was great seeing so many students who are motivated to participate in our democratic process.”
Here are some other ways to get involved in the democratic process:
- Look for events leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5 and learn more about getting involved by visiting the CCE Civic Engagement webpage.
- Remember Day on Democracy on Election Day, Nov. 5, when regular class meetings (with exceptions for scheduled laboratories and classes that meet only once per week) are cancelled.
- Consider attending a debate between candidates for Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium.
