Penn State University Campus Vote Initiative Example Programs
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
- Organizer(s):
- Individual Student
- Size:
- 34,000 students
Deborah Sadow, a student at Penn State and member of the school’s “Into the Streets” community service program, conceptualized and organized a service-based voter registration project on her campus. Familiar with Youth Service America’s ServiceVote 2000 campaign, Sadow modified that campaign’s principles to suit the needs of her campus and she designed a series of one-day service projects designed to encourage participants to vote and educate them about issues of concern to the local community. Recruiting other students to help her on the project, Sadow established four committees (Service, Voter Registration, Media and Final Event) to organize the work of the project. Sadow’s project is significant because it was very successful at forging the crucial connection between community service and democratic citizenship.
Project Highlights:
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Service Projects
Over the course of four weekends, Sadow organized a series of day-long service projects where students spent time providing service to a segment of the local community and then took part in an educational session designed to demonstrate how state and national policies impact the members of that community. Retirement homes and prisons are examples of the kind of sites where the projects took place. Each team of student volunteers was headed by a team leader who had received training in how to facilitate the educational discussion that took place at the conclusion of the project. Utilizing issue information from sources like SpeakOut.com, the team leaders engaged volunteers in a period of reflection on their service, emphasizing the relevance of the upcoming elections to the policies and programs that stand to have a direct impact on the community that had been served. Over a dozen separate projects took place with more than 200 students participating in the overall initiative. Voter registration materials were also available at each project and student who had not already done so were strongly encouraged to register.
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Get Out the Vote Rally
Sadow concluded her voter registration/education campaign by teaming with the Student Government Association to co-sponsor a huge get-out-the-vote rally on campus. The rally included bands and food and was in part funded by money from the Student Affairs office. Representatives from the College Democrats and College Republicans were invited to set up tables at the rally in order to hand out materials advertising their respective candidates for office. Sadow’s group had information available notifying potential voters where their polling places were located. Several hundred students attended the event.
