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Students Stir Political Action

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 20, 2008

CITRUS PARK - Sickles High School students hope to make a difference in the presidential election this year, get others talking about current events and inspire political action.

And it all starts with a box.

The school developed "Booth in a Box" with the help of Project ELECT, a federal grant the Hillsborough County school district received to bolster civic education. Striped in red and white, the box contains a mobile voter registration kit. It has forms, contact numbers, answers to frequently asked questions and even "I Voted" stickers. The goal is to give volunteers everything they need to register people to vote.

Sickles premiered the approach in May before teachers and students from other schools. Schools across the district will set up the booths at open houses and back-to-school nights to get parents and eligible students registered. Although the deadline has passed for the Aug. 26 primary election, residents have until Oct. 6 to register for the general election in November.

The Sickles students brought their booth out last week at an open house. Teens circulated through the crowd with forms, while others manned the display. They reached out to parents and high school seniors, passing out forms or accepting completed ones that they will mail to the Supervisor of Elections office.

"Would you like to register to vote, ma'am?" teacher Julia Pipkins called to a mother passing by.

Hillsborough received the $2 million grant behind Project ELECT (Educating Learners to Engage in Civics Today) last year from the U.S. Department of Education. It created a partnership with Kids Voting Tampa Bay and the supervisor of elections for materials for the school registration drives. The elections office trained students to fill out registration forms and answer questions.

At Sickles, the interest encompasses more than the presidential election.

Pipkins and fellow American Government Teacher Cindy Robinson talked to their ninth-graders last year about creating a service club with a focus on government. Kris Nelson and Vicki Quintero liked the idea.

"We needed a good service club, and we decided to go for it," said Vicki, 15.

Now sophomores, Vicki is vice president and Kris is president and vice president of the 24-member club, called "ACE" for Active Civic Engagement. They completed its constitution and bylaws in the spring and stayed in touch via e-mail this summer to plan for the voter registration drive.

Kris, 15, said it doesn't bother him that he is getting other people prepared to vote but is too young to vote himself. He hopes his work with ACE helps when he goes to college and majors in political science.

Once school starts, club members will appear regularly on Sickles' morning show to give candidate updates, such as vice presidential picks and convention news, and brief classmates about current events. They already have asked teachers if they can talk about the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Robinson said she loved seeing their enthusiasm.

"If you get them involved now," she said, "they're going to be active citizens."

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

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