High School students help get out the vote

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Baldwin High School students demonstrated their civic pride this election season with the “Get Out The Vote Campaign.”

Baldwin High School students coordinated and launched an awareness about this year’s elections, with their “Get Out the Vote” campaign. 

Seniors taking the College Civics and News Literacy course collaborated with the high school’s Student Leadership Council to develop and launch the awareness campaign, which focuses on educating their fellow students on the importance of voting, registering, and pre-registering to vote during October and early November.

“This is another indicator of how our students here at Baldwin High School demonstrate their interest and engagement into their school and community through self-directed learning,” added Dr. Neil Testa, principal of Baldwin High School. “It is not surprising to see their final products turn out to be of high quality and full of creativity!”

Throughout the month of October, the students hosted a series of activities, creating information materials to help encourage their classmates to register and pre-register to vote for future elections, while providing directions on how. 

Students created voter registration info graphics, which were distributed by principal Dr. Neil Testa to Baldwin families and displayed on the screens in the high school lobby. Then, the Student Leadership Council followed with a “Get out the Vote” t-shirt campaign.

Students like Aneyssa Gathers said this project is important because it shows how voting allows everyone’s voice to be heard in the government. She said this project advertised voting, which encouraged a lot of high school students to register to vote.

“The voter turnout over the past couple of years has shown that the lowest percentage consisted of ages 18-24,” said Gathers. “Our generation has the ability to bring drastic change to each election.”

Gathers said registering to vote is only the first step in a successful democracy, but it is an accomplishment, which impacts the community and country.

“I enjoyed expressing important information,” said Andy Medrano, a Baldwin high School senior. “It made me feel like I was making a change in my own way.”

Rebecca Borja, a Baldwin High School senior, said this campaign was intended to encourage young adults to register to vote. She said they discussed as a class how the voter registration process was previously time-consuming.

“We can now complete everything via technology, making everything more accessible,” said Borja. “I hope  readers realize that voting is a fundamental act of civic participation that we, the youth, can use to help shape democracy. If we want change, we must first register to vote and then vote for the right person that will bring us change.”

The campaign was made up of various public service announcements by the students, which debuted on Friday, October 28. The Social Studies Department encouraged the juniors and seniors to register and pre-register to vote if they have not already. 

“The creation of the PSAs began with students researching the history of voting in the United States, relevant statistics related to the youth vote, and learning what makes a PSA effective,” explained Ms. Tayla Plotke, their teacher for College Civics and News Literacy. “My students were then able to work with Mr. Shawn Moran, Mr. Noah Kaplan, and myself to write the scripts and see their messages come to life. I am extraordinarily proud of my students and was blown away by their creativity in writing, storyboarding, and filming their PSAs. My students did an amazing job, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for the class of 2023.”