• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. civic ed>

High school students are ready to participate – we just need to engage them

Logan Riffey
July 08, 2019
High school students are ready to participate – we just need to engage them

Logan Riffey (front, center) and his fellow Inspired Leaders want to go beyond just getting people registered to vote. They are also teaching about the importance of voting.

Inspire U.S.

Riffey, a 2019 graduate of Hedgesville (W.Va.) High School in West Virginia, is an Inspired Leader with Inspire U.S., which encourages high school students to register to vote.

Growing up in rural West Virginia, the closest I came to politics was an occasional run-in with campaign yard signs along the road to school. They never really meant much to me – or any of my classmates for that matter. Politics was a topic for our grandparents. In fact, my mom voted for the first time at 38 years old. Then, I attended American Legion Mountaineer Boys State and heard from members of Inspire U.S. The opportunities they provided for a motivated high school student were too good to be true – so I joined. I learned all the things I needed and gained the tools to come prepared for a year of registering high school students to vote.

That year came and went fast. After the nearly 300 eligible seniors were registered at Hedgesville High School, I felt there was more to be done. Our close-knit group of Inspired Leaders at Hedgesville then traveled nearly two hours to register students at Keyser High School and Frankfort High School. We finished our year strong at James Rumsey Technical Institute across the street with close to 120 new voter registrations.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

However, there was one issue that stuck out when registering these hundreds of students. They just did not seem to care. The most common question I was asked was "Why do I need to do this?" Sometimes I just wanted to say it was for the Jennings Randolph Award – given to schools by the West Virginia secretary of state for 100 percent voter registration – but I was a part of Inspire U.S. for more than just the recognition. I wanted to be a part of something more than me or my actions. I wanted to educate. So I learned to tell them how important it is to vote. I made that the foundation of our program at Hedgesville. It isn't that we are just registered to vote, it is that we go out and vote when the time comes. It's about the civic responsibility that we were given the right to participate.


My generation is often called lazy. With everything at the touch of a screen, that may just be productivity out-of-sight. Even things such as registering to vote have become easier with the Internet. That being said, there is no excuse for schools and governments across America that claim they can't get out the vote. If a group of six rural high school students can register hundreds of their peers in a few months, imagine what a similar group could do in a Manhattan or Los Angeles school. Local government can even get involved by setting up their own programs in schools, similar to Inspire U.S., and encourage the students to get involved with the political world — even if it's only to capture their vote on Election Day. By being exposed to this dialogue early on in their high school careers, students will feel obliged to be engaged and voter turnout will skyrocket.

By adopting a "voting curriculum" in the community, a tradition will begin. Since the 2016 election, with a little help from me, my mom got back to the polls for the 2018 primary elections. Now with two elections under her belt, she feels more welcome and motivated to vote in future elections. Having never voted myself, I feel more ready to cast my ballot with what I have done in the last year than ever before. On Election Day, I encouraged our Hedgesville Inspired Leaders to stand in the cold rain thanking voters while they bustled in and out of polling stations. Seeing so many familiar faces from the halls of school truly warmed my heart. It was that day that I realized how important and humble my duty was in giving these people a voice in our democracy.

In April, I participated in round-table discussions about education reform with local community leaders, lawmakers and teachers following the controversial introduction of the education omnibus bill in the West Virginia Senate. There, I spoke with my state senator on aspects of discussion that personally affected me. Having a voice in that moment motivated me even more to head to the polls when the time comes. I had never looked forward to Election Day until now – and with the implication of voter encouragement across the country, so will millions more young people.

A version of this was first published on Medium.

From Your Site Articles
  • Inspire Leadership Summit - Martinsburg - The Fulcrum ›
  • Inspire Leadership Summit - Charleston - The Fulcrum ›
  • Inspire Leadership Summit - San Diego - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Inspire U.S. (@inspire2vote) | Twitter ›
  • Inspire U.S. ›
civic ed

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long
latest News

The show must go on

Amy Lockard
11h

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Rick LaRue
Jamie Raskin
12h

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
20 September

The alchemy of laughter

Pedro Silva
20 September

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Dave Anderson
20 September

Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Lisa Kay Solomon
19 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

Our Staff
05 September
Recommended
The show must go on

The show must go on

Big Picture
To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Big Picture
Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

State
The alchemy of laughter

The alchemy of laughter

Comedy
Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Contributors