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JCCC Receives Gold Seal for Student Voter Engagement

November 15, 2019

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – At the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C., Johnson County Community College (JCCC) received the highest ranking, a Gold Seal award, for achieving a student voting rate of 40-49% in the 2018 midterm election.

gold ribbon showing 40-49% voting rate

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge is a nonpartisan, national initiative recognizing and supporting campuses as they work to increase nonpartisan democratic engagement and full student voter participation. The Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship and make democratic participation a core value on their campus.

“Our institution is proud to receive this national recognition for our efforts. The students, faculty, staff, administrators and local community organizations that came together did an amazing job of reducing apathy, increasing engagement and, ultimately, creating civic-minded students. We look forward to strengthening communities for years to come,” said Tara Karaim, Coordinator of Community Based Learning at JCCC.

Nationally, student participation in elections has increased from the 2014 midterm election to the recent 2018 midterm election. According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, voter turnout at the more than 1,000 institutions participating in the study increased by 21 percentage points, from 19% to 40%. JCCC’s data reveals that the 2018 student voting rate was 45.5%, a 23-point increase from 2014.

“We are excited to honor Johnson County Community College with an ALL IN Challenge Gold Seal in recognition of their intentional efforts to increase democratic engagement and full voter participation,” said Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. “More institutions like JCCC are changing culture on campus by institutionalizing nonpartisan democratic engagement efforts that are resulting in the incredible student voter turnout rates that we’ve seen across the country.”

More than 560 institutions, enrolling more than 6.7 million students, have joined the Challenge since its launch in summer 2016.

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