Founded in 2020, the High School Voter Project is an undergraduate student-run nonpartisan program at the University of Pennsylvania Netter Center for Community Partnerships focused on youth voter registration, civic engagement, and civic education. We offer positions for Penn students interested in leading our programming.
During the school year we facilitate peer-to-peer voter registration drives and voter education drop-ins at university assisted community schools in West Philadelphia. We run after school clubs that include voter registration, advocacy work, and professional development. Our high school students research topics important to them and present their findings and recommendations to legislators. Previous topics have included gun violence, funding public education, affordable housing, and more. We have met with many City Councilmembers and State Representatives. We also offer field trip opportunities, which have included visiting the White House, the PA State Capitol Building, the Constitution Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and more.
Each summer, we run a program called Civic Engagement Summer where we hire a cohort of 6-10 high school students through the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) to work on youth voter engagement efforts. PYN interns learn about voter registration and youth civic engagement and then put their learning into action by planning and running their own peer-to-peer voter registration drives and meet with local legislators.