Durham Tech students awarded $1,500 grant for voter engagement activities

Nathan Jenkins and Felicia Sierra have a passion for voter engagement.

That passion led the pair to apply for a $1,500 grant that supports college campus voting awareness efforts. They were notified of the grant award in December.

“I’m glad we got the grant, but now I’m ready to get to work,” said Jenkins, 17. “I’m excited to interact with people, inform them, and have an impact.”

Grant funding was made possible by Rise, a student advocacy organization, and their Run With It initiative. Jenkins and Sierra, who submitted the application last semester, requested funding to host events on campus to inform students about election days, voter registration, early voting sites, nonpartisan voting websites, and local, state, and federal positions that will be on the ballot.

“This year is probably going to be one of the biggest elections in this decade, if not our lifetimes, so I think it’s cool that Durham Tech will play a role,” said Sierra, 31. “Durham Tech also has a large high school population, so there will be many first-time voters. I think it’s exciting for them to have such an historic first-time vote.”

All voter engagement activities will be organized through the Durham Tech Center for College and Community Service.

The biggest event will be held February 13, which is the first day of early voting for the primary elections in Durham and Orange counties – three months earlier than it was in 2016.

Several positions will be on the ballot, including the U.S. president, the N.C. governor, and several other federal, state, and local officials. The Durham Tech event will include free specialty coffee drinks, cupcakes, and a shuttle bus that will take students to the closest early voting site at North Carolina Central University.

“We will be educating students the entire semester, but our foot is on the gas immediately because of early voting,” Jenkins said. “It’s just so early that a lot of people are going to forget.”

After the primary election, students will continue to host events until Election Day on November 3, including visiting classrooms during the last 15 minutes of class and setting up information tables around campus on a regular basis.

“I’m excited for them from a student advocacy point of view,” said Erin Riney, Director of Student Engagement at Durham Tech. “We’re really trying to build excitement around the elections. I’m also glad they had the opportunity to learn grant writing, which is a skill that will benefit them later on in their careers.”

Visit Durham Tech events or the Facebook page to stay up-to-date on all voter engagement activities this year.

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Contact: Marcy W. Gardner, Content and Social Media Coordinator, gardnerm@durhamtech.edu

Related:

Durham Tech student receives community impact award; Dec. 4, 2019