By Elena Rowe//
The Voter Registration and Civic Engagement Committee has created the Hood Votes essay contest with hopes to engage in discussion with students about the importance of voting amid the upcoming election.
Members of the committee include the political science department, library staff, Student Government Association and the Career Center.
Breann Harwood, career development and program manager at the Career Center, came up with the idea for the voter essay contest.
“As a committee, we were thinking of ways to appeal to different interests of students,” Harwood said. “We decided an essay contest might be a good way to get students thinking about what voting means to them, in particular with the 2020 election.”
The essay question asks: “Given the extraordinary circumstances of this past year, what does voting mean to you in this 2020 election?” The essay should be 500 words and is judged on creativity, relevance to the theme and writing style. The essays will be judged by a panel of faculty, staff and students. The top three winners will receive monetary awards.
“Anyone can submit an essay. If you have a particular sentiment you would like to share within your essay, we welcome all sorts of different ideas,” Harwood said.
Harwood hopes this essay will inspire students to realize “the gift of voting” and the privilege students have to be able to vote.
“I hope students don’t just think about the act of voting, but what does it mean to others, and how it is going to affect them, their friends, their family, and the greater country,” Harwood said.
Harwood said she believes that students should continue to participate in these events to educate themselves and to understand the history and the importance of voting.
“A lot of these lectures and presentations that have taken place focus a lot on the history of voting, and I think it’s important for students to take advantage of any educational opportunity that they can,” Harwood said. “The more you know about the process of voting, the history of voting and the election, the better off you are going to be now, and in the future.”
To submit an essay, send it to Breann Harwood at harwood@hood.edu by Friday, Oct. 23.
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