Last year, the university’s Center for Civic Engagement & Learning (CCEL) spearheaded a host of nonpartisan initiatives to shake loose apathy and encourage more students to participate in the political process. Among them: voter registration, voter education and collaborations with various campus stakeholders to get out the vote.
As a result, Case Western Reserve University earlier this month was recognized nationally as a “Voter-Friendly Campus” (one of 83 campuses in 23 states) by the national nonpartisan organizations, Campus Vote Project and NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
The select designation, which continues through 2018, recognizes institutions for planning and implementing practices that encouraged their students to register and vote in the 2016 general election and in coming years.
Ashley Chan, Austin Stroud and Sierra Lipscomb
As part of that effort, three Case Western Reserve students—Ashley Chan, Sierra Lipscomb and Austin Stroud—served as Vote Everywhere Ambassadors, a national program supported by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a nonprofit founded by the namesake’s parents to honor their son, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1964 by Ku Klux Klan members with two other civil rights workers while on a mission to register African-Americans voters in the South.
Under the guidance of CCEL Student Service Coordinator Laura Bentley and CCEL Director Betsy Banks, the ambassadors worked tirelessly last semester to register students and continue to promote nonpartisan political engagement on campus.
We spoke with Chan about the experience.
Chan, a sophomore economics major from Shelton, Connecticut, said she’s been interested and engaged in politics and government since high school, where she was involved all four years in the school’s Junior State of America chapter, participating in debates on wide-ranging topics.
“For me, it’s more about advocacy and speaking up about something, and just educating other people,” she said. “It’s all about outreach and building a community that this really resonates with.”
Chan and her fellow ambassadors spent much of last semester conducting voter-registration drives and making presentations to student organizations, such as Greek Life and Residence Hall Association, to explain how to register and why it was important. Much of the work involved correcting misperceptions about the process, she said.
Now, with the general election over, they’re focusing more on providing information to stay engaged, such as distributing voter-registration forms and contact information for government representatives.
Chan, who works as director of web and multimedia for the university’s student newspaper, The Observer, and serves as chief financial officer for her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is also interested in developing programming to encourage voter registration and political engagement among local youth.
“We just want young people to use their voices,” said Chan, who hopes to pursue urban planning and city design. “We want you to just speak up and not have this apathetic mindset of affecting change.”
Learn more about Chan in this week’s five questions:
Ashley Chan, Austin Stroud and Sierra Lipscomb
As part of that effort, three Case Western Reserve students—Ashley Chan, Sierra Lipscomb and Austin Stroud—served as Vote Everywhere Ambassadors, a national program supported by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a nonprofit founded by the namesake’s parents to honor their son, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1964 by Ku Klux Klan members with two other civil rights workers while on a mission to register African-Americans voters in the South.
Under the guidance of CCEL Student Service Coordinator Laura Bentley and CCEL Director Betsy Banks, the ambassadors worked tirelessly last semester to register students and continue to promote nonpartisan political engagement on campus.
We spoke with Chan about the experience.
Chan, a sophomore economics major from Shelton, Connecticut, said she’s been interested and engaged in politics and government since high school, where she was involved all four years in the school’s Junior State of America chapter, participating in debates on wide-ranging topics.
“For me, it’s more about advocacy and speaking up about something, and just educating other people,” she said. “It’s all about outreach and building a community that this really resonates with.”
Chan and her fellow ambassadors spent much of last semester conducting voter-registration drives and making presentations to student organizations, such as Greek Life and Residence Hall Association, to explain how to register and why it was important. Much of the work involved correcting misperceptions about the process, she said.
Now, with the general election over, they’re focusing more on providing information to stay engaged, such as distributing voter-registration forms and contact information for government representatives.
Chan, who works as director of web and multimedia for the university’s student newspaper, The Observer, and serves as chief financial officer for her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is also interested in developing programming to encourage voter registration and political engagement among local youth.
“We just want young people to use their voices,” said Chan, who hopes to pursue urban planning and city design. “We want you to just speak up and not have this apathetic mindset of affecting change.”
Learn more about Chan in this week’s five questions:
