Past Feature 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.

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.