What does democracy look like through young people’s eyes? The Next 250: Youth Voices on Democracy is a three-part KQED radio special featuring stories high school students created for the KQED Youth Media Challenge. Each segment explores how young people are engaging with issues that matter to them.
The second segment, First-Time Voters, Youth-Led Drives, features three young organizers. Nidhi Maddi of Frisco, Texas, explains how limited access to civic education in her immigrant family inspired her to register voters. Vyan Kumar of Pleasanton, California, explores how young people can contribute to their communities before they are old enough to vote. Anna Fedoruk of Colorado Springs, Colorado, recalls the disappointment of her first voter registration drive and the small moments that kept her going.
In conversation with KQED’s Almetria Vaba, New Voters founder Jahnavi Rao reflects on how these students who are New Voter Fellows found a sense of their own power by taking action. Click the listen button at the top of this article to hear the segment, tune in to 88.5 KQED on Monday, September 28, at 5:20 p.m., or listen in the KQED app.
More Information
New Voters helps high school students register their peers to vote and take action on issues that matter to their communities.
The KQED Youth Media Challenge invites middle and high school students to explore how they see themselves, their world, and their future by creating original audio, video and images and publishing them on the Challenge Showcase. Explore more youth voices on the Youth Media Challenge Showcase.
Listen to all three segments of The Next 250: Youth Voices on Democracy here.