Victoria Alvarez--Civic Engagement Reflection

For our second presentation, Professor Sherri believed in our abilities enough to suggest we host an Elections Matter event for citizens’ rights and responsibilities that would pertain to this year’s upcoming and future elections to come. For this presentation, we not only worked alongside our fellow group members but also with a group of psychology students and their Professor Dr. Molina from Miami Dade College. It was through the use of the research and questions that they provided; we were able to create such fantastic presentations. Their research highlighted the psychological aspects that pertain to the election. The main goal of this event was to convince our audience to become more civically engaged in our community. For my group at least, we wanted to leave our audience (mainly, college students) with a new perspective on civic engagement and their rights, to see it as not as this insignificant thing but as a way where our voice can be heard. Now is our time, many college students and young adults do not realize how their vote can change the outcome of our election.

Furthermore, we need to know our rights so that we can build a future that we can proudly be a part of. For this presentation, we had to create a 7- minute video presentation that would still engage our audience and get our message across whilst still maintaining a certain level of professionalism. Within our presentation, we discussed the mental and physical aspects of civic engagement amongst college students. Using Dr. Molina’s class research, we were able to provide a glimpse as to the phycological aspects of the electoral process as on college students. Our main goal was to convince students to become more involved in their communities and elections, so I broke down how their vote and their engagement civically really do have an impact by using charts and graphs. I wanted to give more of a visual presentation rather than just giving the audience facts because I know from personal experience that I tend to remember things more when I see them physically. I wanted to shine a light on how only 16% percentage of the youth turned out to vote which is a dramatic difference from voters over 55 whose voting rate is 63%. I wanted to show to my audience how if young voters were able to match that percentage (and we could in terms of numbers) then we could control the outcome of the elections. 

Two other groups presented, and they gave very informative and compelling presentations as well. Group 2 talked about civic engagement within school-age children and their rights and responsibilities around elections. They provided us with an in-depth understanding of their topic and gave us an outstanding overall from the very beginning to the last second of their presentation. Group 3 also had a phenomenal presentation. Surpassing all expectations, they provided us with a presentation that combined two sub-topics and discussed civic engagements amongst teachers and students whilst still considering minorities and underprivileged people of color.

Being a part of this kind of event allows you to realize the impact misinformation or lack of knowledge has on our society. The main objective of my group was to provide our audience with an informative presentation so that if they were paying attention for the whole presentation or 2 mins, they still were able to walk away knowing something they did not know before. Remember, we are the future. We hold the power and there are people out there who want to silence us and prevent us from realizing our true capabilities so go out and vote.

Victoria Alvarez