PA Push + National Impact: Our May in Review
Plus: Youth Leader Dinner Series, new partnerships, and more.
Welcome to the New Voters newsletter, where we give you handcrafted monthly updates about our voter registration efforts in our goal to register one million youth voters.
Pennsylvania Graduation Push
We are in the midst of a campaign to conduct registration drives at high school graduations across Pennsylvania, specifically preparing the class of 2025 to cast their first ballots in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Election this November. Nearly every graduating student in PA is eligible to register to vote right now - without intervention, they are likely to miss voting in the fall Supreme Court Election. To achieve our goal of high school students being heard and prioritized in democracy, we contacted every high school in the state to run a drive, and have dozens of drives executed and in the works - 12 schools are including New Voters graduation cards in their graduation packets. Create your own New Voters-branded grad card here!
To kick off our PA Grad Push, our Director of Programs, Margaux Granath, traveled to Pennsylvania in early May and hosted six in-person voter registration events, educating hundreds of high school students on the Supreme Court Election this fall and registering eligible students to vote. She hosted presentations and events at New Hope-Solesbury High School, Constitution High School, John Bartram High School, and Blue Ridge High School.
Constitution High School - Drive Spotlight
Summer and graduation drives are underway across the nation! Pizza To The Polls generously sponsored a recent voter registration drive at Constitution High School in Philadelphia. We are proud that we had over 34 students successfully register on the spot, with an additional 30 checking and updating their registration.
New Voters on the Ground
Conestoga High School Service and Leadership Awards
This month, our President and Founder, Jahnavi Rao, delivered a speech at the Service and Leadership Awards for her alma mater, Conestoga High School. She spoke to hundreds of PA seniors and their family members about pursuing a career in public service and the Supreme Court Election this fall. Watch below, beginning at around the 4-minute mark.
Youth Leader Dinner Series
On May 7th and 15th, Rao hosted our first two Youth Leader Dinners in Cambridge, MA, and Berwyn, PA, where current New Voters leaders, alumni and friends of the organization came together to provide feedback on New Voters’ programs, share their visions of change for the world, and developed networks of support for their social impact pursuits!
Attendees at the Cambridge dinner included Aidan Kohn-Murphy of Gen Z For Change, Nadia Douglas of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Cole Hahn of Harvard University, Ava Pallotta of the 2025 Teach For America Corps, Henry Pahlow of the High School Democrats of America, Dominick Lombard of the Harvard Votes Challenge, Sophia Robertson of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, Prat Mallick of Xfund, Jordan Schwartz of the Harvard Public Opinion Project, Karen Torres of Harvard University, Megan Maguire of Wellesley College, and Jessika Landon of New Voters. Dominick and Henry are New Voters Mentors, and Megan Maguire a 2020 New Voters Policy intern!
Attendees at the Berwyn dinner included New Voters Drive Leaders Robel Kassahun of North Penn High School, Olufela Osimonkum of Morehouse College & Governor Shapiro's Advisory Commission, Arima Agrawal of Conestoga High School, Alex Korbel a Conestoga High School alum, and Tanisha Agrawal of UPenn.
Farewell to our Spring Interns!
The New Voters Spring 2025 team cohort has come to an end, with 39 students on our National Team across our mentorship, outreach, communications and executive teams! New Voters is so grateful to have met and engaged with so many inspiring young leaders. We wish them the best in all their future pursuits!
Coming to the New Voters team in our Summer 2025 cohort are approximately 35 team members out of 93 that applied. Stay tuned for more updates about this exciting group!
🤝 Get Involved!
Everyone: Refer a high school student you know to run a registration drive!
High School Students: Sign up to run a drive at your high school!
With important elections coming up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, it is now more important than ever to ensure that your voice will be heard! Check out the link below to run a registration drive in your community or at your school to amplify the voices of those around you as well.
Check your voter registration status, register to vote, and more at New Voters’ official Voter Toolkit.
Partner Updates
New Voters is excited to announce our first official partnership with a state-wide student council association as the official voting partner of Mississippi State Association of Student Councils!
“The Mississippi Association of Student Councils is thrilled to launch the Civic Engagement Initiative in collaboration with New Voters Nonprofit Organization, a comprehensive youth civic engagement program. New Voters is partnering with MSASC in 2025 to promote voting and help our member schools run voter registration drives.” - The MASC
New Voters will offer personal mentorship and Mississippi-specific voter registration information and support to student council members.
University of Maryland - CDCE
Explore research from the New Voters Research Network and updates from the New Voters Collaborative on our newly updated University of Maryland landing page. This page consolidates years of team research and coalition efforts through the 2024 Election.
Partner Opportunities
CoGenerate actively needs young changemakers to interview for their project called What Young Leaders Want and Don’t Want from Older Allies! Participants will receive a gift card for their help in answering questions.
Vote Early Day is looking for Community Champions to help amplify their mission. As a Community Partner, New Voters is excited to share this opportunity with our network.
Sincerely,
Jessika, Harjot, and the New Voters Team