Hoping to influence turnout at the polls, Dominican University is attempting to galvanize youth through civic engagement.
The San Rafael university has invited 138 college students from 47 states to College Debate 2016, a two-day workshop kicking off Wednesday that is focused on encouraging young people to vote. Participants will learn how to promote political conversation on a variety of issues using social media.
“With social media, you can go up and scream at people and get screamed at, or you can use it to inform, educate and move a conversation,” said Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Dominican’s senior adviser for strategy and planning and the chief organizer for the event. “The goal is to move the conversation.”
Student delegates will be taught how to foster healthy conversations on immigration, health care and other hot-button issues facing the nation.
Participants will hear from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla; Alexander Heffner, host of PBS’s “The Open Mind”; and Belmont University journalism professor Sybril Brown about the significance of political engagement and digital identity and how to find reliable news sources.
Delegates during the summer will be encouraged to practice what they have learned through Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites. They are urged to initiate discussion on the issues they feel most passionate about.
Rodriguez-Farrar said if one participant can get five peers to vote, they have done their part.
“I hope that they walk away really understanding how important it is to be engaged,” she said. “This is not sitting on the sideline and waiting for something to happen to them. But they are actors and moving and changing the world.”
Victor Chan, 20, is attending the workshop as a delegate for Dominican. The chemistry major said he was not interested in politics until he had to help his parents, who do not speak English, with medical care.
“It made me realize we have an impact on what’s happening in our future,” said the San Francisco resident.
Danielle O’Reilly, also a 20-year-old representing Dominican, said she was encouraged to participate because she believes her peers are not involved in the election process. The Novato resident said she is most concerned about the state of education, dating violence and sexual assault on college campuses.
“A lot of people my age think their vote doesn’t matter,” O’Reilly said.
Delegates will return to Dominican in September for a town hall meeting that will be live-streamed to campuses across the country. At the meeting, students will zero in on key issues and specific questions they will push presidential candidates to address at an upcoming debate.
“We can have integrity with what we’re trying to do and convince them this is what college students want to hear about,” said Rodriguez-Farrar. “We can’t guarantee (they’ll ask the questions), but that’s what we hope to build and make compelling for them.”
