By Madison Albers
Fort Hays State University
The Rural Youth Voices Initiative seeks to empower rural youth to better serve their communities, reshape dominant narratives about rural engagement, and encourage rural-serving organizations to center youth voices. Twelve Fellows from across the United States received $500 and support from Campus Compact to support a narrative change or civic engagement project in their community.
As a first-generation student, when I started my collegiate career at Fort Hays State University I was unsure of many things and questions kept piling up. In fact, in my very first job at Fort Hays, I had no idea what I was doing. I was hired by the American Democracy Project to promote civic engagement among my fellow students, but I had one issue: I had never heard the term "civic engagement" in my life, much less knew what it meant. That first semester, I gained an understanding of what civic engagement was and what it meant through hands-on experience and quick learning.
It was actually work I had been doing all my life, but never knew it had a name. It was doing service in my community, furthering my education, engaging in meaningful discussions, voting, and even protesting. It was in this career that I began to understand the deep roots of these actions and the ripple effect they could have on our democracy. I felt for the first time in my life that I truly knew what it was to be an active citizen engaging in our democracy.
I realized I wasn't the only one who felt so behind and didn't know what civic engagement was or how to do it. As I worked with my peers every day, I would answer numerous questions about voting, voter registration, service, and many other topics. This, alongside my own background, made me realize how lost my generation was when it came to our democracy and how challenging it could be for them to find the answers. So challenging that most just give up before they really even have a chance to try.
Then I had an even tougher realization when one of my friends from back home, who went to the trade school, asked me about registering to vote. In my work, most people didn't know about civic engagement or all that it encompassed until they came to Fort Hays. A large population at Fort Hays come from small rural towns like my own that simply didn't have the resources or people to have that education before college. The truth is that not everyone from these communities attends a university; many people from my hometown immediately start working or attending the local trade school or community college.
So, where did they get the chance to learn and grow in our democracy? In addition, if my friends felt I was the only one they could turn to, how many others thought they had no one and no resources and just gave up?
This marked the beginning of my journey and work in advocating that civic engagement education starts as early as possible. At least in high school, so that we all have an equal footing in our democracy and that each generation produces civic-minded and engaged individuals who want to better their communities. Because when civic engagement grows in our nation, we all grow. Without this change, especially those in small, overlooked communities will be forgotten and misunderstood as a monolith of education and thought.
This is precisely what led me to my project of educating teenagers in Scott County about civic engagement in our community. I’ve known for the past four years that this was a project I was passionate about, but it never seemed quite the right time or that I could find interest and funding for a project in a tiny rural town. That was until I happened upon the Campus Compact’s Rural Youth Voices Initiative, which aligned perfectly with combatting all of the issues I had seen firsthand.
Through my work at the local library, I knew that our teen program would be the best foundation for the project, offering a neutral space for all teens in our county and already focused on furthering education. Then I thought what better way to showcase what civic engagement is and how impactful the work can be than hands-on service. I began working with the Scott County Library Staff to develop a service project that could showcase our county and community, resonate with the teens, and leave behind an essential lesson in civic engagement.
That is when the brilliant idea of a mural depicting Scott County’s history arose, which could be painted right there in the library. We decided to work with others in our community to make this event as impactful as possible. We reached out to a local artist who works at the Kansas State Research Extension office to draw out the mural's contents, including Kansas' history, such as the Western Interior Seaway, the Battle of Punished Woman, El Quartelejo remains, and more. We brought in a local historian from the El Quartelejo Museum to explain to the group the importance of the history as they paint it.
Finally, I will also give a lesson on how the mural ties into civic engagement and how participants can continue their journey as engaged citizens of our democracy. We will be hosting this event in early December for our Teen Group, ages 13-17, and afterwards, they'll have the opportunity to share their thoughts about the project and what it means to them.
All of this would not be possible without the support and Guidance from the Rural Youth Voices Initiative at Campus Compact. We couldn't be more grateful!