Student Leadership Opportunities

Trained student leaders are the heart of this work.

“Peer-to-peer” or “relational organizing” has been proven to be the most effective and meaningful way to motivate students to participate in the democratic process. Recruiting and training student leaders to lead the work and ask their peers to vote is essential for being able to ask every student.

These resources include campus-created strategies around federal work-study civic engagement positions, and student fellowship and ambassadorship programs. We also offer training resources, including a virtual organizing academy, training slides, and a conversation guide.

Graphics showing a group of 4 student leaders holding arms with each other.

Recruit students into different types of roles

There are many different types of opportunities you can design for the students leading your civic engagement efforts on campus, including federal work study, fellowship programs, and incentivized volunteer ambassadorships. Mix, match, and combine these opportunities to support student leaders based on your context!

  • A snippet of Northampton Community College's work study recruitment flyer

    Civic Engagement Federal Work Studies

    Northampton Community College shares how they use federal work study funding to promote civic engagement on campus, including assets and guidelines for designing and implementing an equitable work study program.

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  • Three people holding up signs that say vote.

    Student Voting Fellows and Ambassadors

    This scalable model from Carnegie Mellon University is designed to incentivize and support students to lead voter engagement work at different levels of commitment based on their capacity and interest.

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Train students to organize and register their peers to vote

In any strategy to ask every student, there is no resource more valuable than trained and supported individuals. Once you’ve designed your student leadership opportunities, train students to organize and have conversations to prepare peers to confidently navigate the democratic process, beginning with voter registration.

  • Use template slides for an in-person voter registration training

    These template slides can be used to train individuals to have conversations with students about voter registration and democratic engagement.

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  • Use the Ask Every Student Conversation Guide for nonpartisan engagement

    This conversation guide is meant to help campus voting organizers develop scripts, trainings, and talking points for talking to students about democratic engagement, with a focus on voter participation.

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  • A computer on a desk showing "Ask Every Student Academy" on the screen.

    Train students to organize with the virtual Ask Every Student Academy

    Any student can access this free, virtual academy to learn how to organize their campus, help their peers vote, and create meaningful change in their communities. This resource was created by LeadMN in collaboration with the Andrew Goodman Foundation, Campus Vote Project, Florida Student Power Network, SLSV Coalition, and the Phi Kappa Beta Honors Society at the Community College of Rhode Island.

    Enroll Now!