When the leaky roof of her crumbling New Orleans high school left rain-drenched students huddled in moldy classrooms, Alaina Zelaya helped rally her community to demand improvements to school facilities. Now a junior at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Zelaya is channeling that same determination to get out the vote on her campus.
“In class, I’d look up at the ceiling and see cracks and think to myself, ‘What is going on? We should not be going through this,’” Zelaya said. “I was tired of being outraged but not doing anything with the outrage. I’ve always been told by my mother that just talking is not enough. You have to be willing to do something to make a difference.”
Zelaya and other students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the South are working to register, educate and mobilize voters ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Student organizers are responding to the needs of their campuses and communities while partnering with local and national organizations to turn out voters.