Previously Featured Student Activists

As the DC respresentative on the MTV Street Team '08, Erica Anderson covers the 2008 election from a local standpoint. This young citizen-journalist wasted no time showing she understands the importance of congressional voting rights to local DC youth. Her first DC-oriented media post on the Web site was a video entitled 'The DC Voting Rights Act.' The film features DC Vote's own executive director, Ilir Zherka. Erica is committed to addressing topics of concern to young people that often are neglected by the mainstream media. Students for DC Vote says: Thanks for showing DC students that their voices matter, Erica! To see more work by Erica visit her MTV Street Team '08 Web page and her personal EricaAmerica Web site.

A number of young DC voting rights supporters made sure that their voices were heard in Campus Progress Action's "I'm Voting For" project. The project allows young people to upload video testimonials of themselves speaking about the issues that matter to them most in the upcoming elections. Thanks to the high volume of video testimonials from young people saying they will be voting for candidates who support DC voting rights, both DC Vote and voting rights are now among the top ten issues on the site. The video testimonials on DC voting rights come from a variety of young people including: students who have moved to the District for school and lost their right to vote in Congress, DC natives, students who live outside of the District but support congressional voting rights for their DC friends, and representatives from Students for DC Vote. The testimonial of Students for DC Vote Coordinator Josh Bumpus appeared as the first featured video on the home page. The other videos can be found in the Human and Civil Rights section of the "I'm Voting For" Web site.

The third grade classes at Two Rivers Public Charter School spent the fall 2007 semester studying DC History and DC Voting Rights. At the end of the semester, the classes presented a showcase of their findings to their fellow students and DC Vote. The presentation culminated in the students symbolically voting to pass the DC Voting Rights Act. These DC Historians also each composed their own letters to the Senate asking Congress to grant DC residents congressional voting rights. The letters were compiled into a book (PDF 428 kb) by teacher Ms. Elaine Hou and sent to Congress! With young historians like this, DC will get full democracy in no time!

Students from the 2008 Brazil Youth Ambassadors Program met with Eugene Dewitt Kinlow and Nell Schaffer of DC Vote to discuss the denial of democracy in the District of Columbia. The highly selective group visited the United States on a two-week educational exchange program, spending time in Washington, DC, learning about the U.S. government before visiting various states. The students expressed surprise and deep concern about the fact that the people living in the capital of the United States are denied voting representation in their federal government. The capital of Brazil, Brasilia, is also a federal district, but its residents are granted voting representation in the nation’s federal legislature.

Local high school students from Georgetown Day School generously offered their time and hard work to DC Vote during the month of April. Approximately 18 students chose to volunteer for DC Vote as part of a yearly school-wide volunteering initiative. This year's DC Vote group is headed by senior Benjy Messner and made possible by the dedication of the students and supporting teachers. The students will help out in the following ways:

April 10: Tax Day Postcard Assembly and Dupont Circle
Business Visits (DC Vote Offices)
April 17: Phone Banking to Voters in MT, NH, MS, VA, and
NE (Common Cause Offices)
April 24: Phone Banking to Voters in MT, VA, and WV
(Common Cause Offices)

Allison Bailly, a student at American University in Washington, DC, recently completed an academic project on DC voting rights entitled, 'D.C. and the Youth Vote: A Look at How Young Professionals Moving to the District View the Potential Loss of Their Voting Rights.' Over the course of two months, Bailly reasearched the opinions of student transplants to the District and how they feel about DC's lack of congressional representation. After conducting a number of interviews with students professionals and DC voting rights activists, Bailly compiled her findings into an awesome blog. To see the final product and read the interviews, click here. Allison, Students for DC Vote salutes you for including this important issue in your academic research!

For his senior documentary film project at St. Mary's College of Maryland, Eric Schlein needed to focus on an intriguing, relevant and important topic. Given the parameters of the task at hand, it was no surprise that Eric chose the topic of DC voting rights! Eric spent the year filming elected officials, activists and local citizens about DC's fight for full congressional representation.

What resulted is a very informative and powerful documentary: 'DC's Disenfranchised.' With this work, Eric joins the ranks of a number of recent students who have undertaken academic inquiries into the topic of DC voting rights--but none before Eric have completed such a distinguished and impressive piece of film. Thank you Eric, and congratulations on your graduation!

Capping off a two-week intensive course on DC voting rights, twenty students from the Cesar Chavez Parkside Public Charter School will met with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and members of the U.S. Senate who are filibustering the DC Voting Rights Act (S. 1257).

The ninth-grade students were asked to vote on their favorite subjects for Capstone - a two-week, intensive educational program at the end of the school year. Students who selected DC voting rights as one of their top choices had the opportunity to learn more about it and advocate for the issue with an activity at the end of the course. Following a week of activities that included public polling and filming videos about DC voting rights for YouTube, the group will met with Del. Norton and lobbied Senators in DC Vote's target states. The students met with staff from the offices of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT). They will also distributed fliers and carried signs they made as part of their class work.

Earlier this year Joel Donelan, our Student Outreach Intern made a visit to Capitol City Charter School. At Capitol City the amount of information they already knew about the DC voting rights issue was astounding. They loved the "Demand the Vote" song by Joe L. Da Vessel and were eager to find out how they could get involved. They decided to join the movement by creating presentations and picket signs on DC voting rights. The students had so much passion that when President Obama visited the school one of the students asked him about DC voting rights. If you would like to see the picket signs in person come to Project S.T.A.N.D.,our youth speak out event on April 14, 2009 the signs will be on display.