Voter-Friendly Campus

Fair Elections Center鈥檚 Campus Vote Project and NASPA 鈥� Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education announced that 272 campuses in 39 states and the District of Columbia were designated as 鈥淰oter Friendly Campuses.鈥� The initiative recognizes institutions that have planned and implemented nonpartisan practices that encourage their students to register and vote.

The mission of the Voter Friendly Campus designation is to bolster colleges and universities鈥� nonpartisan efforts to help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process, every year, not just during years featuring federal elections. Those selected were evaluated based on a written plan for how institutions planned to register, educate, and turnout student voters in 2024, how they facilitated voter engagement efforts on their campuses, followed by a final analysis of their nonpartisan efforts.

鈥淒ue to ever-mounting barriers, engaging students in our Democracy is not easy work. However, these schools have taken remarkable steps towards institutionalizing voting practices into their operations, to ensure young people on their campuses are able and ready to fulfill their civic responsibility,鈥� said Robert Brandon, President and Founder, Fair Elections Center. 鈥淔air Elections Center, through its Campus Vote Project and partners like NASPA, remains committed to working alongside universities and providing the necessary tools and resources to support civic education through the Voter Friendly Campus program.鈥�

ALL IN Most Engaged Campus

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) recognizes students, faculty and staff, presidents, athletic coaches, partner organizations, and election officials for their exemplary leadership in advancing nonpartisan student civic engagement. From civic learning to voter participation, these leaders are empowering students to become lifelong participants in our democracy.

The Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. More than 1,000 colleges and universities are participating in ALL IN across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling more than 10 million students.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, established in 2016, is a national, nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation.

Ringling Votes

Ringling Votes is an initiative led by Ringling students and staff in collaboration with community partners to increase civic engagement throughout campus. Recognizing the importance of civic engagement, the College supports civic-minded students by offering opportunities to become well-informed about election processes, register to vote, and get to the polls

They provide resources, voter guides, and directions on how to register to vote, including links. These resources can be found on the Ringling Votes webpage.

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communications@ringling.edu
941-309-4008

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Lazarus Scholars pair with local nonprofits for the length of their time at 四虎影视. The students provide valuable community service while undergoing professional development, applying their skills in a real-world setting, and engaging with important community causes.

In the summer between their first and second years, the Lazarus Assistantship annually challenges its scholars to identify a topic related to their nonprofit community partner and develop an art piece to bring awareness about that topic and the nonprofit itself. This year鈥檚 gallery, curated by Tessa Wijaya 鈥�25, Illustration, and featuring works from the 2027 Lazarus Cohort, represents topics related to the American Heart Association, Tidewell Hospice, the Manatee County Boys and Girls Club, Manatee Children Services, and Multicultural Health Institute.

鈥淚 created this riso-printed comic to inspire meaningful connections, encourage dialogue about the power of legacy, and advocate for support of Empath Health/Tidewell Hospice,鈥� said Leo Motherway 鈥�27, Illustration, of his Sunset Legacy. 鈥淭hrough warm imagery of a hospice space and a family gathered to read their father鈥檚 legacy book, I try to evoke a sense of family, reverence, and the importance of preserving stories.鈥�

鈥淭hrough this piece, I hope to represent the 鈥楢merican Dream,鈥� a promise often exported to the Global South as an ideal of prosperity and fulfillment. However, behind its allure, the 鈥楢merican Dream鈥� has a long history shaped by colonization鈥� said Widya Kendran 鈥�27, Film, of her piece, Ashes, created in honor of the Multicultural Health Institute. 鈥淢y hope is that Ashes opens a heartfelt conversation about what the 鈥楢merican Dream鈥� truly means for the mental health of Asians and Asian Americans, especially immigrants. I want to honor the resilience of these stories, even when the smoke fades.鈥�

The Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship is made possible by the generous support of The Rudi Lazarus Foundation.

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Contact:

Office of Marketing and Communications
communications@ringling.edu 
941-309-4008

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The book, which is printed in English, Spanish, and Creole, follows a grandmother and her grandson as the two explore landmarks of the Sarasota/Manatee area. What鈥檚 in My Community: Manasota County is a celebration of the area and is designed to be read by a child and their guardian. 

Rosado created the book in collaboration with the local non-profit Project Light of Manatee Inc. and the 四虎影视 Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship. Fellow students Margo Drew and Madison Gear also helped with the book’s pre-production. 

鈥淢y hope with this book is to bring together families around a shared sense of community,鈥� Rosado said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e never too young to learn and you鈥檙e never too old to keep learning.鈥�  

Project Light of Manatee Inc. teaches English, computer, and citizenship classes to local students from many parts of the world. In May 2023, Rosado reached out to Project Light to aid the organization by creating a book that would act as a resource for their students. What鈥檚 in My Community: Manasota County promotes literacy while also acting as a historical guide to the community. 

The Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship at 四虎影视 of Art and Design is a four-year program designed to support students in their exploration of non-profit community partners, building of relationships with specific organizations, development of a creative and sustainable solution for a community challenge or initiative, and reflection of their roles as an artist in their local community. Made possible by the generous support of The Rudi Lazarus Foundation 

Initial production of What鈥檚 in My Community: Manasota County was also made possible by a grant from the Bradenton Rotary Foundation.

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The award ceremony took place at a luncheon on Sept. 16 as part of the NHPCO鈥檚 2024 annual leadership conference in Denver, Colorado.

Blue Butterfly provides specialized grief services for teens and children. But Helmick appreciates that the work they do can benefit all young people, whether or not they鈥檝e lost someone close to them. 鈥淚 wish I had the additional support that Blue Butterfly provides,鈥� she explained. 鈥淪uch as creating a safe space to learn about their mental health and openly expressing any and all emotions.鈥�

As a scholar selected for the four-year Lazarus Experiential Learning Assistantship, Helmick is committed to volunteering for a local nonprofit that addresses issues related to poverty. But as she began learning about the community nonprofits partnered with the Lazarus program, she struggled to find the right fit.

鈥淚 was having a difficult time, and nothing had felt quite right,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 until we watched the video about Blue Butterfly that something clicked. The support kids are able to receive is something I wish I had when I was younger. And now I have the opportunity to impact their lives.鈥�

Her work with Blue Butterfly includes assisting counselors with group sessions and activities in a shared space in Newtown on the first and third Wednesday of every month. She鈥檚 also offered her artistic abilities to the organization, most notably creating designs for Tidewell鈥檚 Legacy Books, in which hospice patients can write details about their lives to be given to loved ones. Helmick shares her experiences with her peers and sometimes recruits them to help with Tidewell projects.

鈥淎lthough I’m not going into any relevant field, volunteering with Blue Butterfly has taught me many transferable skills, challenged my creativity, and broadened my perspective,鈥� said Helmick. 鈥淢y target audience will most likely be the same age as kids at Blue Butterfly, and by learning about them, I learn how I can best appeal to their age and what sort of stories they not only want to see but need to see.鈥�

The Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship is made possible by the generous support of the Rudi Lazarus Foundation and partners with AmeriCorps to address poverty in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Lazarus scholars in the four-year program serve multiple hours per week with a local nonprofit focused on issues like hunger, nutrition, literacy, homelessness, and housing, as well as serving children and youth affected by poverty. Lazarus students develop capstone projects, recruit classmates and the Ringling community, participate in community education initiatives, and share personal reflections on their service.

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In order to earn this recognition, colleges must have implemented a nonpartisan democratic engagement action plan that received at least 31.5 of 36 possible points through ALL IN鈥檚.

According to its website, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge 鈥渆ncourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, make democratic participation a core value on their campus, and cultivate generations of engaged citizens who are essential to a healthy democracy.鈥�

ALL IN was founded in 2016 in response to increasingly lower rates of young adult voters during national elections, especially midterms. The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) found that only 20% of young adults ages 18-29 and 19% of college students voted in the 2014 midterm election.

More than 1,000 colleges and universities have signed up for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge since its inception.

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Each year, the College鈥檚 Community Engaged Learning department organizes a beach cleanup event at Ted Spurling Park on South Lido Key. First-year students attend the beach cleanup as part of orientation. In spring, there is another opportunity for all students to join in on a campus-wide beach cleanup event. 

四虎影视 Film students have been working with local environmental and coastal ecology organizations to make a series of short documentaries. Over the summer, they worked with Oyster River Ecology, Mote Marine Laboratory鈥檚 Sea Turtle Conservation team, and Suncoast Urban Reforesters. Last year, students worked with Longboat Key Turtle Watch, Save Our Seabirds, and another Mote Marine Laboratory group.

The Motion Design department organizes an annual beach day, during which students bring drawing gear and sketch images from the beach, sketching wildlife and landscapes, and exercising their drawing and observation skills. 

The Plein Air Club, one of the most popular student clubs on campus, regularly visits the beach to practice their drawing from life skills. Club member Fernando Aguirre 鈥�26, Illustration, shared, 鈥淧ainting at the beaches here is always a great time, especially with friends. You just get to have a nice chat and make some cool art together. I love looking at the water and have fun painting it as it is constantly changing and allows me to play with new techniques and color.鈥� He said, 鈥淭he Plein Air Club here at Ringling gives students this incredible experience every single week. We get to gather together, discover new locations, and maybe even make a new friend. It is always a blast.鈥�

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四虎影视 was chosen as part of a select group of campuses from around the country that participated and received the designation for their efforts to break down barriers and empower students with the information and tools they need to fully participate in the political process. 

In 2022, the Ringling鈥檚 campus was named an ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting, for its efforts made to increase voter participation. That year, the College was also recognized as one of 鈥溾�� by Washington Monthly, a Washington, D.C.-based magazine. 

The considerable voting initiatives are a reflection of 四虎影视鈥檚 institutional mission to prepare students to be discerning visual thinkers and ethical practitioners. The College balances the teaching of technical skills with critical, conceptual, and creative abilities, with courses that provide historical, multicultural, global, and future perspectives.

Director of Student Volunteerism and Service-Learning Rachel Levey-Baker and her department (soon to be known on campus as Community Engaged Learning), along with a group of student leaders led by Alex Pigg 鈥�23, Creative Writing and Sarah Forest 鈥�23, Film, along with community partners like the League of Women Voters, the Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, and other local colleges including, University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee, New College of Florida, and State College of Florida collaborated on the voter engagement programming that led to this acknowledgement.

鈥淩inglingVotes is incredibly grateful to earn the Voter Friendly Campus designation as it recognizes the hard work of the group to increase student access to voter education and highlights that our campus realizes the importance of election engagement,” said Levey-Baker. “We look forward to continuing to build a culture of civic engagement by bringing voter education, tools, registration, and more to our campus in the future.鈥�

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The Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship is a service-centered program that was established at 四虎影视 20 years ago. The program recognizes the importance of active citizenship, and provides the opportunity to pair service in the community with professional development. 

For her capstone project, Tan partnered with Children First, a non-profit Head Start program serving Sarasota County鈥檚 lowest income children. Tan created a children’s book, You Can. You Can!, acting as director and 3D modeler in collaboration with other Ringling students: Anastasia Rykova 鈥�23, Computer Animation, visual development and illustrator; Ale Ortega-Romero 鈥�23, Illustration, environment artist and illustrator; Elisia Fernandez 鈥�23, Illustration, environment artist and illustrator; Rebe Chen 鈥�23, Illustration, producer; and Valeria Fernandez 鈥�23, Visual Studies, producer. The team was supported through the project by multiple faculty members. Tan鈥檚 goal was to write a story about empowerment to help children learn to read, while also offering a strong emotional and motivational message. Over the course of the project, Tan raised almost 300 dollars for the organization, selling merchandise, and produced 120 books for the children.   

For Bowers鈥� capstone project, she partnered with All Faiths Food Bank, whom she has volunteered with since her first semester at 四虎影视 and through the Lazarus Assistantship. After completing extensive research on 鈥渇ood deserts鈥� and the issue of food insecurity 鈥� a cause that was new to Bowers 鈥� she turned her research into a zine. She started working on the zine in her sophomore year, and continued through her senior year with the help of 15 other Ringling students who contributed as illustrators. 

After completing a considerable amount of service training and two major projects, both students plan to continue in their commitment to volunteering. Bowers plans to spend her summer volunteering as an art teacher for a Boy Scout camp and at the Shakespeare in the Park free theater in Louisville, Kentucky. Tan plans to continue working with Children First, and raising money for the organization from book sales. 

Lazarus Scholars go through extensive training about various causes, themes in service, leadership, and diversity, and work to engage their non-profit partners in a holistic way. The four-year program includes scholarship and work-study opportunities and is designed to support students in their exploration of non-profit community partners; building of relationships with specific organizations; development of a creative and sustainable solution for a community challenge or initiative; and reflection of their roles as an artist in their local community. The Lazarus Engaged Learning Assistantship is funded by The Rudi Lazarus Foundation.

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The distributions are part of a national initiative by Always to fight period poverty, the lack of access to menstrual products many girls and young women face in school that results in educational inequality, lost opportunities, and confidence.

The company selected Code Red as a following the release of the film and donated 50,000 Always pads to the team to be distributed to schools across Florida.Code Red is 四虎影视鈥檚 whimsical, coming-of-age short film that confronts the prevalent issue of period poverty.

Writer/director Jada Wing Hang Poon 鈥�20, Film, wrote Code Red as a senior and came back post-graduation and post-COVID to direct the film with a team of cast, crew, and financial backers who shared her passion in telling this important story. The film has won multiple awards and been selected for multiple film festivals across the US and internationally.

Alumni Kat Mullen 鈥�20, who produced Code Red, along with other members of the crew, including Film students Celi Mitidieri 鈥�24, Milena Montero 鈥�24, and Darci Howell 鈥�23, will be distributing Always products to regional organizations through the new year.

Period Heroes are people and organizations doing extraordinary work in their local communities to help #EndPeriodPoverty. Research shows that one in five girls in the U.S. have missed school due to lack of access to period products. This means they are missing confidence-boosting activities like class time, sports and extra-curricular activities simply because they do not have access to the period products they need.

鈥淎lthough the girls in Code Red go on a whimsical adventure to find a pad, they’re still missing class because they don’t have easy access to period products,鈥� said Poon. 鈥淢y hope is that Code Red fuels conversations between young people and their communities, encouraging them to end period stigma and take action in their local schools and politics to affect change for future generations.鈥�

Since 2018, Always has donated more than 65 million period products to help #EndPeriodPoverty in the U.S. 鈥� but there is still work to be done. This year, Always, alongside the 50 Period Heroes, will distribute 2.5 million pads to help young people stay in confidence-boosting activities they love.

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The hosted its third biennial awards ceremony on November 8, 2021 to recognize select higher education institutions, educators, and students for their extraordinary work in student voter engagement during the 2020 presidential election. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and most students learning virtually, the honorees ensured students across the country could cast their ballots.

The 2020 presidential election engaged the largest and most diverse group of college students in U.S. history. 四虎影视 of Art and Design received the 2021 Silver Award, which meant they had a 60-69% student voting engagement across campus. More than 840 institutions enrolling close to nine million students participate in the ALL IN Challenge.

The 2020 election cycle saw unprecedented voter registration and turnout among college students according to the , a research study of the Institute for Democracy in Higher Education (IDHE) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. IDHE reported that 66 percent of college students voted in the 2020 election, a 14 point increase from 2016.

鈥淭he rise in voter participation and engagement for college students in last year鈥檚 presidential election amidst a global pandemic was tremendous and will undoubtedly be tied to the tireless efforts of the dedicated students, faculty, administrators, and partner organizations that are part of the ALL IN Challenge network,鈥� said Jen Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. 鈥淭he hard work of these trailblazing honorees will help support many of the country鈥檚 future leaders in fulfilling the equitable, engaged vision of democracy to which we aspire.鈥�

鈥淒ue to COVID-19, with such a large percentage of our students learning remotely and participating from all across the country, we had to launch a new effort to get the information to students where they were – virtually – through our campus social media channels, using #RinglingVotes, and through the creation of a RinglingVotes website,鈥� explained Rachel Levey-Baker, Director of Student Volunteerism and Service-Learning at 四虎影视.

鈥淭o increase the visibility of our announcements, events, updates, and events, we partnered with the campus Social Media Specialist and other campus department social media accounts to share our content. This included posting photos from our events to increase awareness, interest, and engagement. As part of this initiative, we worked with Institutional Technology to

create an easy-to-remember email alias, vote@ringling.edu, for any member of campus with a question related to the election.鈥�

The website was created to house all information related to the election and how to engage. In addition to posting our Constitution Day presentation from the local Supervisor of Elections, we included tools for the following:

• Voter Registration
• Requesting Vote-by-Mail and Absentee Ballots
• Early Voting
• Election Day Voting
• Ballot, candidate, and issue guides
• Election laws and deadlines for each state
• Resources for faculty and staff
• Post-election support materials
• Information related to voting and COVID-19
• Help webform
• Email alias for election-related support: vote@ringling.edu

As awareness of the programming increased, and campus guidelines for programming were updated, 四虎影视 was able to deliver the following:

• 14 virtual voter registration/voter education events; Partnering with Residence Assistants, Students of Color Alliance, Campus Activities Board, and several faculty for in-class remote presentations
• 11 in-person info booth tabling events with printed information, necessary forms, voting swag, election support, copies of the U.S. Constitution, selfie booths, and a help station, with an average of 10 students visiting per event
• 2 virtual debate watch events
• 1 virtual voter outreach event (text bank)
• 2 events to write thank you notes to election workers
• events to celebrate 6 election/voter-related national days: Constitution Day, National Voter Registration Day, Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, Election Hero Day, Election Day
• 3 in-person election support tabling events with emotional health tools and giveaways, Election process guides

鈥淲e are really proud of this achievement, recognition, and of all of our students for making their voices heard,鈥� confirmed Levey-Baker.

The (ALL IN) is a national, nonpartisan initiative of Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization. ALL IN strives for a more inclusive democracy鈥攐ne in which all voices are heard. We believe that higher education plays a role in graduating students into

voters and in closing electoral participation gaps that persist by race and age. Through an intentionally designed program鈥攚hich provides structure, support, and recognition鈥擜LL IN strengthens college and university efforts to improve civic learning, political engagement, and voter participation. Ensuring that students are registered to vote and participate in all elections is a key component of our work.

Learn more and see a full list of winning campuses at:

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