Monday March 18th, 2024 11:56PM

Student ambassadors ready to embark on quest to get classmates to vote

Student leaders from state high schools are set to compete against one another to get the word out about voter registration.

The Secretary of State’s Student Ambassador Program encourages students via a friendly competition to get out in the community and preach the importance of voting through various activities such as hosting voter registration drives, organizing pep-rallies promoting voter registration, speaking to their peers about the importance of voting, volunteering with a non-profit organization, attending civic meetings and promoting the program on social media, just to name a few.

Points are awarded for each activity performed. Last year’s winning ambassadors from Carrollton High School were invited to the Capital for lunch with Secretary of State Brian Kemp and presented a trophy for their efforts.

The program got underway at the Lumpkin County Recreational Center on Monday during the Lumpkin County Regional Kick-Off Event, one of six regional kick-offs that will take place over the next week and a half. Several area schools, including North Hall, attended the event.

“We developed the ambassadors program to help train these ambassadors,” Kemp said. “Then we’re going to let them go back to their schools and help raise awareness about voting civics, how you get registered and what the qualifications are.”

Kemp said the idea for the Student Ambassadors Program came to him last year as he was talking to schools and speaking at assemblies trying to get the word out to young people about the new online voter registration system.

“It kind of hit me as I was speaking to one of these groups,” Kemp said. “It really might be more effective if the students were doing that themselves verses some politician or grown-up trying to tell them what to do.”

Kemp officially launched the program in January for the spring semester. His goal was for Georgia high school students to learn more about civics and government, but he also wanted these students to grow as leaders among their peers.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to learn leadership skills,” Kemp said. “Which will be beneficial to them down the road, whether it’s on their college resumes or job resumes. It’ll help them learn more about how government operates and how important it is to be engaged in the electoral process.”

The initial run of the program included 14 high schools. This fall, the program has grown to 102 high schools from 69 counties with over 800 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors taking part in the Student Ambassador Program. Kemp said his goal is to eventually have it in every high school.

“I applied because I’m very interested in government,” a North Hall student said. “I thought it was a good, interesting new way to get involved in the government as a student because there’s not many opportunities to do that while you’re in high school.”

Out of the dozen or so schools at the kick-off event, several were from Forsyth County (Central, West and Lambert). North Hall was the only school that represented Hall County.

“In our school, we try to encourage our students to be part of the community and to take an active role,” a North Hall faculty adviser said. “This is a great way to get, even though they can’t vote yet, it’s a great way to get them started in learning why it’s so important to vote and helping their peers learn to vote.”

  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News, Politics
  • Associated Tags: North Hall, Lumpkin County, hall county, North Hall High School, Brian Kemp, dahlonega, Georgia Secretary of State
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