News and Events : News 04-05

Press Release

NMH VOTES 2004 Project Features Political Speaker Series

October 1, 2004

NORTHFIELD, Mass.—In every U.S. presidential election since 1988, Northfield Mount Hermon School has sponsored VOTES (Voting Opportunities for Teenagers in Every State), a project that makes politics more fun and understandable for young people at NMH and 100 high schools across the country. Political forecasters, take note: the 50,000 to 100,000 student voters who participated in each VOTES mock election have accurately predicted the winner four times in a row. Will they again in 2004?
Northfield Mount Hermon teachers Jim Shea and Lorrie Byrom, VOTES founders and coordinators, have created many activities to augment the project’s curriculum. This month, three speakers will visit the school to discuss issues relevant to this year’s presidential election. The series is open to the public.
On October 7, NMH alumnus Don Glascoff, human rights activist and lawyer, will speak about adjustments to U.S. civil liberties since 9/11 and the plight of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The talk will take place in Beveridge Hall on the Mount Hermon campus at 6:45 pm.
At 7 pm on October 10, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Jane Eisner will discuss the importance of youth voting. Eisner, whose recently published book Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in Our Democracy, is the founder of First Vote, a nonpartisan voter education program for high school students. This event will take place in the Auditorium on the Northfield campus.
On October 20 at 6:45 pm, Peter Vickery, candidate for the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, will share his experiences as a politician and his views about current problems in our democracy. Vickery will speak in Beveridge Hall on the Mount Hermon campus.
This year’s mock election will be held on October 28. NMH students and faculty will transform the school’s student center into an election headquarters and mock television studio. With video cameras rolling, students will act as anchorpersons, interviewers, and political analysts. They will announce the results of a nationwide issues poll that asks questions about the war in Iraq, health care reform, tax cuts, Artic refuge oil drilling, and more. They will also tally the popular votes from one private and one public school in each state, determine the electoral vote count, and announce the overall electoral college winner at the end of the evening event.
“The VOTES project has proven to be a remarkably effective and fun way of teaching our high school students about the electoral process in the United States,” says Shea. “The hands-on mock election experience allows teenagers to be active participants in the learning and political process rather than merely passive observers. What better way is there to teach them to be thoughtful, engaged, and informed citizens in the future?”
For more information, see www.nmhschool.org/votes2004.
Contact: Deb Holman, 413-498-3376 or dholman@nmschool.org

 

Top of Page