“I wanted to register as many seniors as possible to vote so their voices could be heard.” Zaria Guignard, a 17-year-old junior at McClintock High School in Tempe, has managed to do just that in her role with Inspire Arizona, our state’s version of the national youth leadership program Inspire U.S., which teaches high school students about voter registration and civic involvement.
Zaria is one of 70 students from 24 Arizona schools who have spent the last year trying to register classmates to vote, especially in advance of the presidential election in November.
“The goal for the students is to register 85 percent of their senior classes,” says Darryl Bess, a program coordinator for Inspire Arizona. Bess says it’s been incredible to see the sophomores, juniors and seniors—who can either nominate themselves or be nominated by school faculty or administrators for the program—grow into their roles as student leaders.
Adrian Jamieson, co-program coordinator, agrees: “When sophomores are trying to talk to the senior class, it can be pretty intimidating. To see them feel comfortable with that and know their stuff when people ask them questions is really meaningful to me.”
Cassie Murphy, a senior at University High School in Tolleson, found that, in her community, “students’ parents aren’t always registered or don’t understand how to vote, because a lot of them never went through American high schools or weren’t taught American civics. Our goal is to reach out to the community and register adults, too.”
To date, Bess says more than 1,000 students have been registered to vote. Zaria says she’s seen positive results, too. “[The students] are excited about people asking them their opinions.” Education funding and immigration are among the key issues of concern they hear from fellow students.
Inspire Arizona has introduced both teen leaders to dozens of like-minded students. “It’s an organization that’s trying to do what I’ve been trying to do,” says Cassie. “It was nice to find a community that felt the same way that I did about voting.”
“The youth demographic has the lowest voter turnout across the nation,” says Bess. “In Arizona, voter turnout is one of the lowest among 18- to 24-year-olds.”
“We are working on expanding our get-out-to-vote efforts,” says Jamieson. “It will be interesting to see what kind of role Inspire Arizona can play in that.”
Civic involvement is another key to the program. Cassie says and another Inspire Arizona classmate are working on a mentoring program matching seniors with freshmen as they navigate from middle school to high school.
Applications for the next class of Inspire Arizona leaders are due Tuesday, May 31. Learn more about the program at inspireus-az.org.