April Showers Bring May Voters
Inside: new opportunities to join our programs, sign ups for youth dinners nationwide, our founder’s Echoing Green finalist news, and hundreds of high schoolers trained this month.
A newsletter giving you handcrafted monthly updates about our voter registration efforts in our goal to register one million youth voters.
☀️ Get Involved with us this summer!
Refer High School Student Drive Leaders: Know any youth interested in civic engagement? Refer them to run a voter registration drive with us! With guidance from amazing college mentors and access to the countless collaborative resources, running a drive is an incredible opportunity to make positive change.
Join the New Voters Team: We are thrilled to announce that we have positions on our executive, communications, and outreach teams open for the summer! Each will play a vital role in assisting young leaders to become lifelong civic participants. Apply at the link below before the deadline of May 9th!
Apply for New Researchers: High school students can apply for New Researchers, a free 8-week virtual summer program (June 16–Aug 4) to learn how to conduct and present impactful research. Includes guest lectures from Harvard, UMD, and more, plus a national research proposal competition! Read. more about the program here and act fast; the deadline is quickly approaching on May 11th!
🍽️ Dine with New Voters
Our President and Founder, Jahnavi Rao, is hitting the road to host intimate dinners with youth leaders who care about democracy. Whether you helped launch New Voters in 2017, are running a drive next week, or just discovered us through Substack, we want to meet you. These dinners are a chance to hear your advice on New Voters, uplift your impact projects, and strengthen connections between youth leaders. If we aren’t coming to your city, fill out the form and let us know where to come next.
🌎 Run a sustainable voter registration drive!
Happy Earth Month from all of us at New Voters! We have a few suggestions on how you can make your voter registration drive both impactful and safe for the environment. Check out the graphics below - running a voter registration drive has never been so impactful, sustainable, and easy!
🗞️ New Voters on the Ground
Echoing Green Global Fellowship Finalist: We are beyond honored to announce that, out of 4,200 applicants, our President and Founder, Jahnavi Rao, was selected as one of 48 finalists for the Echoing Green Fellowship. Check out the Social Impact Talent Report below to meet all the finalists and the change they are creating!
Oregon Association of Student Councils: On April 27th and 28th, our Director of Programs, Margaux Granath, attended and presented at the Oregon Association of Student Councils conference in Seaside, Oregon. Margaux presented to completely full rooms in both sessions - highlighting the importance of voting and the ease of online voter registration in Oregon. She connected with over 100 students and teachers to recruit registration drive leaders, and assisted in students registering to vote right then and there!
Convenings Recap for April: Our President Jahnavi Rao joined forces with changemakers at four standout gatherings this month, from co-hosting Young Advocacy Professionals Happy Hour with DonorAtlas and OutVote (welcoming 200 youth leaders!), to the Rising Leaders Forum hosted by Robin Hood and Goldman Sachs in NYC, to a DC UNIFIERS dinner with The Conversationalist, to Citizen University’s April Civic Collaboratory in Los Angeles. At each stop, Jahnavi established new collaborations, reconnected with our partners through the years, and shared New Voters’ vision for a truly youth-powered democracy.
Aspen Center for Rising Generations x Georgetown Research Symposium: We are proud to partner with the newly established Aspen Center of Rising Generation on centering high school voices and perspectives into research on youth. That mission came to life at the recent symposium where academics, educators, nonprofits and students convened to hear research and reimagine adolescence as a powerful stage of growth. We are excited to continue working with Aspen’s CRG in novel, effective and innovative ways.
🤝 New Partners
We are excited to announce that New Voters is the official voting partner of the Mississippi Association of Student Councils! We are also working with Wisconsin Initiative for Superior Education and Arizona Boys State to support their voter registration programs, especially amongst rural populations. You can find us at the Arizona Boys State conference in June - an annual event bringing over 150 top high schools students from across the state to learn about civics and democracy.
📝 Opportunities
From funding and paid fellowship opportunities for high school students, to voting parties in every major city, to teacher trainings and Executive Director roles, check out these opportunities from our incredible partners below:
Phones In Focus: Phones In Focus is a nationwide research initiative collecting data on school cell phone policies and their effectiveness. This nonpartisan project aims to provide evidence-based recommendations for managing student cell phones in educational settings. Take the survey here.
PIVOT Fellowship: PIVOT is a youth-led think tank currently looking for fellows to conduct policy research , interested in opportunities to publish their work, leading a podcast, and initiating a civic project in their community all with the full support from PIVOT. Apply here!
Riley’s Way Call for Kindness virtual celebration: The Call For Kindness Fellowship empowers youth change makers across the country with leadership development and up to $5,000 in funding to launch and grow projects rooted in kindness, empathy, and community building. Welcome the 2025 C4K cohort and RSVP here.
Sincerely,
Jahnavi, Jessika, Harjot, and the New Voters Team