Wake the Vote is calling all students

There is no denying it—the presidential race has taken over the media, and America is, by and large, captivated by the election. Wake Forest is in the thick of it; in fact, one group on campus, Wake the Vote, is dedicated solely to encouraging and educating students about the presidential election.

Wake the Vote is an “intensive civic learning and democratic engagement experience for a highly selective group of undergraduates at Wake Forest University. WTV offers students the opportunity to form a diverse cohort, examine issues central to the presidential election, build competencies for engaged citizenship, and experience American democracy from the front lines through travel, participatory action, employment, course work, program planning, and personal reflection.” As members of WTF, Wake Forest students travel across the country to visit states during their primary elections; they get a closer look at the political process.

I spoke with sophomores Nick Boney, Eugenia Huang and Alex Fulling who are all part of Wake the Vote. Boney is an English and Political Science double major. Huang is a Political Science major and an Education minor. Fulling is a political science major, and he is double minor in Arabic language and Middle Eastern/Southeast Asian studies. They are three of twenty-two members of WTV.

How did you become involved with Wake the Vote?

Nick Boney: I got an email about the opportunity to apply last fall, and it immediately piqued my interest. I didn’t know anyone else who had applied for it or much about it at the time, but so far [it has] been an incredible experience.

Eugenia Huang: I became involved because I had taken Melissa Harris-Perry’s class last fall, and she had mentioned it in class, but I mostly ended up applying because a friend of mine reached out and thought it was something I would [like].

Alex Fulling: I became involved in Wake the Vote through the College Democrats chapter on our campus, of which I am Vice-President. The previous President had heard about the program through the Political Science department and sent the application to myself and a few others [who are now also part of Wake the Vote, as well].

Please describe your involvement with Wake the Vote, and please explain Wake the Vote’s mission.

Alex: We [travel] across the country for a full year and learn about democracy, voting, elections, and campaigning first-hand. It’s a traveling classroom. Every day when we’re on the road we go out and do our volunteering or whatever activity it is that we are tasked with for that day, and in the evening, we come home and reflect with our professor Melissa Harris-Perry who travels with us and is an expert on these subjects.

Nick: In addition to being a member of the general WTV Cohort, I’m also on our Get Out The Vote subcommittee (GOTV). We have been traveling a lot recently because of the primaries. The GOTV committee hasn’t made much of a presence on campus, but in the next few months and especially next fall when the general election is coming around, we’ll be having lots of voter teach-ins to get people excited about crucial issues in the presidential election.

Eugenia: In last couple months I’ve had the pleasure of working for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders and have attended Clinton, Trump, Christie, Kasich, Rubio, Sanders, and Cruz events and rallies. I’ve managed to meet and talk to most of the candidates although the Democrats still have managed to escape my reach! Some other notable people I’ve met along the trail: Sarah Palin, Vermin Supreme, and Josh Hutcherson (aka Peeta).

Most of the work we do are just volunteering for the campaigns, so this typically involves many hours of phone banking and canvassing. It’s much less glamorous than one would expect. I’ve gotten to watch an Iowa caucus vote live inside, travel to New Hampshire and South Carolina, and even visit D.C. to speak with Congresswoman Alma Adams and John Lewis. I met members from the advisory board members of the Council of Women and Girls, Youth Engagement and Education Council, Domestic Policy Council, and the National Economic Council.

Other remarkable opportunities include exclusive Media tours of MSNBC and CNN studios. I’ve gotten to speak with Chris Matthews from Hardball, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid, and Andrea Mitchell. Some of the students even got interviewed live on MHP’s show! It’s been incredible to get to see first hand how political media coverage operates, specifically, looking at how and what news is quantified as “legitimate or newsworthy.”

I’ve also gotten to speak on a panel alongside Revered William Barber (NC NAACP leader and [founder of] Moral Mondays) and Jeff Furman (Board Chair of Ben and Jerry’s) to learn about their efforts against voter oppression.

How would you describe the political climate at Wake Forest? 

Nick: There are some very far right and very far left leaning students at Wake, but for the most part–especially in this election–that a lot of people are fairly moderate. The general sentiment seems to be that students who usually vote Republican or Democrat are dissatisfied with the candidates who their party has put forward.

Eugenia: The political climate at Wake is reportedly right leaning. However, the majority of conversations I’ve had with people reveal that most students describe themselves as “socially liberal” and “fiscally conservative.” [I believe] there are far more ‘left leaning’/moderates/Democrats on campus than most would believe. If you get to the core of most issues, I think youth demographics tend to lean left in general, particularly on social issues.

[Note: Wake Forest recently hosted former President Bill Clinton. He was campaigning for his wife’s campagin].

What do you think are the most pressing political issues for college students today?

Alex: For college students in general, student loans are the number one issue. The interest level on loans is brutal, and people end up spending 20-30 years paying them off while also tacking on mortgages and other loans. However, at Wake, I don’t think students are terribly concerned about it and are more concerned about issues such as campaign finance, the environment, education reform, and general economics (the national debt, taxes, etc.).

How are professors/faculty members involved with Wake the Vote?

Nick: Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry is the director of the program. Dr. Dani Parker, Marianna Madjuka, and Fahim Guhamali from the Pro Humanitate Institute are the behind the scenes movers and shakers of WTV; they help us with a lot of our organizing and dealing with administrative issues.

What is unique about Wake the Vote?

Eugenia: I think the fact that we get randomly assigned to campaigns makes it a unique experience. That way you’re not just getting to see how your chosen candidate operates but also how individuals on the other side of the isle work. Mainly, it’s a great chance to engage really with the democratic process rather than just be discussing partisan issues.

What is one thing that is surprising about Wake Forest’s political activism?

Nick: It comes in waves. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent atmosphere of political engagement–our goal is to change that– but when certain issues arise (like recent contention over who has the right to elect the next supreme court justice to replace Scalia) people seem to get more involved and interested.

Eugenia: There are unique pockets of Wake that show astounding amounts of effort for political activism. One of the things I find most surprising is that in class most Wake students are happy to talk in depth about political issues, beliefs, and value systems. However, more often than not, it is typically hard to engage students to have those conversations. People are busy but I would expect that a student body as hard working as ours would find the value in exploring activist bubbles outside their comfort zone.

Alex: How nonexistent it is! The other schools that I was looking at most heavily were George Washington and Georgetown, two of the most politically-active schools in the nation, so it was somewhat of a shock when I arrived at Wake to find such a powerful sense of political apathy. I think it’s unhealthy, and it should be addressed, but it’s understandable—not everyone is a political nerd like we all are in Wake the Vote.

What percentage of Wake Forest students will vote for President?

Nick: I can’t say for sure, but in 2012 just under 75% of students at Wake were registered to vote though just over 44% casted a vote in the election.