The University of Mary Washington, at its seventh annual nonpartisan Virginia Student Voting Summit, asked students to share their first civic engagement experience.
Ai Vy Le, a senior from Harrisonburg, said she walked five miles with her grandmother to vote for the first time. Elena Lizarraga of Springfield volunteered to work the polls in 2016.
The summit, which promotes civic dialogue, enabled UMW to earn the All In Campus Democracy Challenge’s “Highly Established Action Plan Seal.” Nearly 100 students, administrators and community members from schools across Virginia gathered at the summit, which met students where they are in the voting process and shared information about making sure their voices are heard on Election Day.
“It brings different perspectives,” Devin Van Dyke, a Campus Vote Project democracy fellow who attends Radford University. He drove six hours from his Tazewell home to participate in an afternoon panel at UMW’s summit. “Students from different colleges are coming together to share how they make their initiatives work on their campuses.”
Representatives from JMU, Germanna Community College, Virginia Tech and VCU also participated in the summit, which was presented by UMW’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and the Fair Election Center’s Campus Vote Project.
UMW Votes, a student organization that educates Mary Washington students about voting early, absentee ballots and gives rides to the polls also participated. In early 2024, the organization earned a Fund for Mary Washington Impact Grant to rent a trolley to transport students on Election Day.
“My parents pushed me to believe that voting is important,” UMW junior Jorrin Casa de Calvo, who earned a spot on the 2024 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for his efforts to get out the vote, said. “If you don’t vote, you’re kind of going against the rights that people from the past fought for.”
UMW also earned gold status from the All In Campus Democracy Challenge for its student turnout rate at the polls in the 2020 presidential election (79 percent) and the 2022 midterm elections (43 percent).
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Rebecca Barnabi
