2022 Democracy Fellows
The Voting Experience
Our annual voter education event – for students, by students – enters its fifth year in 2022.
- Since 2018, Tri-C has been holding a fall voter education event that we’ve dubbed The Voting Experience. Each year, by design, The Voting Experience covers both Constitution Day and National Voter Registration Day.
- The branded, pop-up voting event serves as an ever-growing legacy project for each cohort of Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellows serving at Tri-C. It also supports Tri-C's role as a Voter Friendly Campus and an Ask Every Student Codesigner Campus.
- Since 2020, the program has moved online. You'll find The Voting Experience 2022 on Tri-C's YouTube channel with an online playlist of student-led video guides to voting.
Tri-C Government Relations Director Katie Montgomery serves as the Democracy Fellowship program mentor at Tri-C. Four scholars are serving as Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellows at Tri-C in 2022 - Ade Adesanmi, Arman Saldirdak, Donte Jones and Samantha Franco. Mandel Community Liaison Summer Paris also serves on the cohort's Core Team. The students have spent their Fellowship year planning to uplift nonpartisan student civic engagement both at Tri-C and with students across the country. Annually, close to 100 students, faculty and staff help Government Relations uplift the Promote the Vote efforts at Tri-C.
Rock The Polls
Every Democracy Fellows cohort is asked to add to The Voting Experience legacy project. Be sure to check out this year's addition: our new-to-the-world voting anthem, Rock The Polls, written by Gospel artist rapper Corey Bapes. It debuts Sept. 15 and is the overarching theme of this year's programs. The students hope you'll join the dance challenge, the co-curricular challenge or attend one of the upcoming campus events.
History
In 2021, four Tri-C scholars, Bree E., Eddy C., Judy N., Kenzie B. and Paige R., served as Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellows. See the work of the 2021 cohort here. Plus, you can still visit The Voting Experience 2021 online and enjoy a project for students, by students.
In 2020, four Tri-C students, Arwa E., Charese H., Dalu O. and Sebastian C., served as Democracy Fellows through Tri-C's Government Relations office in conjunction with the Fair Election Center's Campus Vote Project. Our collective goal is to help support student voter engagement. Through a series of student-hosted videos, the 2020 cohort helped peers learn everything needed to know in order to vote and raise their voices in our democracy. Revisit the work of the 2020 cohort here.
Become a Democracy Fellow
Interested in raising your voice for democracy? While applications are closed to serve as a non-partisan Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellow at Tri-C in 2022, you can email Katie Montgomery, director of Government Relations, at katharine.montgomery@tri-c.edu for other ways you can help support democracy at Tri-C. The Democracy Fellow application for 2023 will be available in December of 2022.