Bella Sturtevant | Rural Youth Organizer: Kennebec County
On October 15th, I left class early to pick up pizza for a discussion event I’d organized, expecting maybe 10 people to show up. By that morning, only two people had RSVP’d—friends I’d asked to come—so I was nervous that all my advertising efforts hadn’t drawn much interest. By lunch, however, two professors had offered extra credit in three classes to support youth voting engagement. Just an hour before the event, my RSVP count had grown to six. I was excited to have even that many.
While I set up my presentation and placed the food on a table, people gradually began to trickle in. After I introduced myself and JMJU, over 20 attendees had filled the seats and even stood in the corners to listen. Many were there because my advisor—the person who introduced me to JMJU—had offered extra credit for attendance. Launching into my presentation, I was surprised by how engaged the audience became, but I noticed a young person in the back who looked very bored and uninterested. Aside from this, people responded to my questions, laughed at my humor, and whispered to each other excitedly.
I shared a personal story about my first encounter with politics back in 5th grade when I first heard about someone named Donald Trump and a lady called Hillary Clinton. Growing up in a small town in Maine with a population of just over 2,000 people, I’d always felt distant from national politics. As I learned more about government and the electoral system, that sense of disconnection and hopelessness deepened—particularly when I learned about the electoral college. As I explained this to my audience, many were nodding their heads in recognition and sighing in frustration.
The discussion ranged from the electoral college to margins of victory, with people sharing their thoughts on every topic we covered. At the end, I decided to ask the group at the back of the room what they thought. To my surprise, the student who seemed uninterested spoke up, saying, “I wasn’t going to vote before, but now I am.” Another student added, “I’m from Florida, and I didn’t even know I could vote here. I’ll be voting on campus this election day.” This was so exciting—it meant two more voices would be heard!
People were eager to keep talking that they wanted even more time for open discussion even though most of it was discussion. Next time, I want to allow even more time for unstructured discussion. Reflecting on the event, I’m encouraged by the impact I was able to make, even with a few uncertainties along the way. I’m looking forward to using this experience to improve future discussions and to engage more of my peers in the democratic process.
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