In a previous column on engaged students, I introduced Grace McCord and MadisonAlbers, two\u00a0Fort Hays State University\u00a0freshmen Student Government Association senators who meticulously researched, wrote a case for support and then worked through several approval processes to gain support for moving a polling place on campus.\u00a0Regardless of the\u00a0pending\u00a0campus polling place\u00a0decision, I\u00a0admire\u00a0their resilience and passion for engaging in civic life. I am\u00a0encouraged\u00a0to see these two remarkable students fully embrace\u00a0active learning\u00a0to pursue this goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grace has lived her entire\u00a0life\u00a0in Hays. Her parents raised her to be involved in our community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was always playing sports, going to Girl Scouts, Youth Group, 4-H meetings, and all kinds of other community events. I assumed leadership roles in many of these organizations,\u201d Grace said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When\u00a0she\u00a0aged out of the Hays Rec sports programs,\u00a0she\u00a0started coaching\u00a0youth\u00a0softball teams\u00a0during\u00a0the summers.\u00a0Grace\u00a0also served on the\u00a0local\u00a0Girls Scout Advisory Council and volunteered at many church events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madison hails from Goodland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u00a0loved growing up in a close-knit community with so many kind people,\u201d\u00a0Madison said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Grace, Madison\u00a0spent\u00a0much\u00a0of her youth serving her community through Kiwanis, organizing\u00a0senior\u00a0citizens’ dinners\u00a0at Christmas, volunteering for a multitude of service projects and singing\u00a0at\u00a0community gatherings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although from different communities, Madison and Grace share a heartfelt commitment\u00a0to\u00a0service. During their college search, Madison and Grace believed FHSU was a place they could thrive,\u00a0given the small classes, tight-knit community and the ethic\u00a0of\u00a0care embraced by our faculty and staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is easy to make friends here,\u201d Grace said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What started as two independent paths, Madison and Grace would soon meet and become close friends. Both declared political science as their majors, joined the same learning community\u00a0and\u00a0sorority, and were hired as student staff\u00a0with\u00a0the American Democracy Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Democracy Project (ADP) is a university-wide initiative designed to prepare the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our democracy. The goal of ADP is to produce university graduates who are committed to being active citizens in their communities with civic knowledge, skills and values. This initiative provides numerous civic and political engagement activities that challenge and encourage students to find their place and make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a perfect way for Grace and Madison to grow their friendship, serve their community\u00a0and\u00a0earn a bachelor\u2019s degree\u00a0\u2013\u00a0all while learning about who they are as individuals and servant leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through\u00a0their\u00a0work\u00a0with ADP,\u00a0Grace and\u00a0Madison have been\u00a0focused\u00a0on\u00a0bringing\u00a0a polling place to campus so students can more easily\u00a0participate in our democracy at the\u00a0local, state and national\u00a0levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe believe it is so important for FHSU students to be civically active because the more involved students are, the more say they have in the world around them,\u201d\u00a0Grace\u00a0said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Madison explained a big part of having a civically-engaged student body is working to raise our voting rate by making\u00a0the\u00a0voting\u00a0process more\u00a0accessible and understandable to all students.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where to start? They wanted to understand the current state of affairs, which led them to focus on the National Study of Learning,\u00a0Voting and Engagement. This report examines student and institutional-level data on voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What did they learn? Namely that FHSU was falling behind the national college student voting average, and from this experience, a mission was born: improving FHSU student voting rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, they reached out\u00a0to\u00a0civic engagement centers\u00a0at other universities\u00a0for information about what they were doing to get their students to vote. They learned all of the colleges\u00a0that posted\u00a0higher student voter turnouts\u00a0had an on-campus polling location. Wichita State University, for example, had an almost 20\u00a0percent college\u00a0student\u00a0voter rate\u00a0increase\u00a0when the on-campus polling location\u00a0opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They did more research,\u00a0listened,\u00a0took notes,\u00a0identified\u00a0key\u00a0challenges and\u00a0devised\u00a0solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pair next addressed\u00a0safety and parking\u00a0issues in a conversation\u00a0with\u00a0FHSU University Police.\u00a0They\u00a0also worked with student organizations for support and wrote a resolution for SGA to pledge senators as poll workers.\u00a0Finally, they reached out to\u00a0other organizations\u00a0on campus\u00a0for help,\u00a0including the\u00a0Staff Senate, Faculty Senate\u00a0and\u00a0building managers. The cost issue was perhaps the most formidable challenge Grace and Madison faced, but that too didn\u2019t set them back.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe resolved the cost issue by proposing to move an existing polling place,\u201d Madison said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grace and Madison knew they had one key asset on their side — engaged FHSU students.\u00a0Grace\u00a0shared\u00a0there is so much student support on campus,\u00a0they knew they would\u00a0have\u00a0more than\u00a0enough students to work the polls. They were also convinced they\u00a0could even send poll workers to other polling locations around Hays.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout this process,\u00a0Grace and Madison\u00a0have learned networking skills\u00a0as well as how to gather, evaluate and present information persuasively. They also learned there are many ways to accomplish a task, but the hardest part is choosing the right path.\u00a0The pair\u2019s\u00a0biggest\u00a0takeaways\u00a0were learning to\u00a0prepare\u00a0for\u00a0possible\u00a0failure,\u00a0the value of\u00a0pushing through difficulties and\u00a0embracing the need to\u00a0return to the drawing board\u00a0to\u00a0rework\u00a0their plans as\u00a0necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe used pushback to make our initiative better and better every time,\u201d\u00a0Madison said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have had so much help along the way and couldn’t have achieved nearly as much without the help\u00a0of\u00a0many\u00a0people,\u201d\u00a0Grace\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular,\u00a0they said they\u00a0are grateful\u00a0for the support of their political science faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After FHSU, Madison plans to attend law school. She plans to focus on immigration law. She wants to give back and lift others up \u2013 or \u201cpay it forward,\u201d as the saying goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for Grace, \u201cFHSU has already taught me so much, especially that helping others is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to be able to continue helping my community during my time at FHSU, so staying involved with all the organizations that I am currently a part of is important to me, but finding new causes to dedicate my time to is important to me as well. After college, I hope to go into advocacy work and continue to help others.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These\u00a0best friends\u00a0are\u00a0learning and working together,\u00a0focused on serving as a force for the greater good.\u00a0Their story\u00a0is the essence of an\u00a0FHSU education unfolding, our mission in action and our hope for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a previous column on engaged students, I introduced Grace McCord and MadisonAlbers, two\u00a0Fort Hays State University\u00a0freshmen Student Government Association senators who meticulously researched, wrote… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72557,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72556\/revisions\/72557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}