University Marketing and Communications

Wake the Vote kicks off year of civic learning and democratic engagement

A $650,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has been awarded to Wake Forest University in support of “engaged humanities."

When 22 Wake Forest University students travel to the Iowa caucuses to work with presidential campaigns, they will embark upon a yearlong journey that combines classroom and real-world political experience through a program called Wake the Vote.

At a time when polarization drives many Americans away from politics and voter turnout among 18 to 29-year-olds hovers around 20 percent, a Wake Forest University study shows that learning to talk about controversial issues while in college can inspire young adults to be more engaged citizens even 10 years later.