by Heather Carr, staff writer
Volunteers from the class of 2015 assisted at a local polling booth for the 2014 Mid-Term Elections on Tuesday. Students volunteered at Los Caballeros Sports Club in order to fulfill graduation requirements that included completing at least 10 hours of community service.
FVHS students Theresa Nguyen, Judy Beik, and Diana Tran were busy throughout the day working as student clerks, checking in voters, verifying addresses, helping fill out forms, assisting in set-up and clean-up of the polling station, and signing a number of documents. The Barons saw the work as an opportunity to expand their understanding of the voting process, which was especially to many of them because they will be voting in the near future.
Theresa Nguyen, a volunteer, said, “Mrs. Chaicharee first referred me to this opportunity to fill my community service requirements, and I thought it was a great way to not [just] benefit myself, but also to lend a hand in a right that many young adults do not take advantage of.”
Nguyen, a firm believer in the right to participate in local and national elections, believes that being active in this duty of citizenship applies largely to the younger generations.
“I am currently sixteen years old and I think that more people should vote,” Nguyen stated. “Not only adults, but the younger generations should feel like they can play a part in their community and government. Because older adults tend to vote, I think the lawmakers overlook us a little and don’t keep our interests in mind all the time…us [m]illennials are the largest voting block and most racially diverse- [t]hat can make huge differences!”
The student volunteers were also able to use this opportunity to get a new perspective on voting.
“I…learned that voting stations could be almost anywhere, and most of the voters were kind and thanked me for my work,” Nguyen stated. “I think my viewpoint has changed in a sense that the nation is more diverse and truly a melting pot.”
From their experience assisting at the poll booths, many developed a newfound appreciation for the their right to vote.
“I feel like [voting] is important now that I saw how many people actually went and the type of people that actually went,” Judy Beik, another volunteer, said. “I feel like it’s important for us younger kids to actually do it now. I thought voting didn’t matter before, but now I think it matters.”
