Category: GW Events, News, and Opportunities

GW Votes is task force through The Honey W Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service. These faculty, administrators and students are committed to increase voter turnout among GW students.

For more information: https://serve.gwu.edu/gw-votes

Read on for events and how to get involved. Please forward to your students!

Sept 25th - National Voter Registration Day @ University Yard – 11am-4pm

Sign-up for Turbovote, connect with politically active student organizations, and learn more about voting! Food and refreshments will be provided. Sign-up to volunteer

Sept 26th - GW Votes and the George Washington Museum and Textile Museum Present: Celebrating and Envisioning the Four Freedoms - 11am to 5pm

Conference Room at the George Washington Museum and Textile Museum

This event is a bipartisan event that will provide the opportunity for students to share their thoughts on what Franklin D. Roosevelt called the four freedoms:

·       The freedom of speech and expression.

·       The freedom to worship in the way you choose.

·       Freedom from want.

·       Freedom from fear.

We invite students to explore what these freedoms mean to them, how they see these freedoms demonstrated in our society today, and how they envision these freedoms to evolve when contemplating the future of our country. This event includes activities and dialogues that students and community members can participate in at their leisure.

Voter registration will be encouraged and available during the event. Sign-up to volunteer.

October 3rd - School of Public Health Voter Registration Drive @ Milken Institute School of Public Health - 3:30pm-5:30pm

Voter registration will be encouraged and available at the entrance.

October 13th - Voter Registartion Drive @ Mount Vernon Campus Quad - 4pm-7pm

Sign-up to volunteer. 

October 18th - Party at the Mailbox @ Kogan Plaza

Join us for a party at the "mailbox" and mail in your absentee ballots through the US Postal Service. You can also connect with politically active student organizations, and learn more about voting. Food and refreshments will be provided. Sign-up to volunteer

November 6th - Election Day Party at the Polls @ Square 80 – 11am-4pm

Join us for our election day celebration! Food and refreshments will be provided! Sign-up to volunteer

#GW Votes Tabling @ Marvin Center First Floor - 10 am - 2 pm

October 1st , October 3rd, October 10th, October 15th. Sign-Up to volunteer

Next week is the monthly Conversation on Community-Engaged Scholarship, and we will be talking about what works in increasing voter turn-out among college students. To warm us up, here is a fact sheet on Youth Voting from our colleagues at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRLCE). https://civicyouth.org/quick-facts/youth-voting/

What Affects Youth Voting:

• Contact! Young people who are contacted by an organization or a campaign are more likely to vote. Additionally, those who discuss an election are more likely to vote in it.
• Young people who are registered to vote turn out in high numbers, very close to the rate of older voters. In the 2008 election, 84% of those youth 18-29 who were registered to vote actually cast a ballot. Youth voter registration rates are much lower than older age groups’ rates, and as a result, guiding youth through the registration process is one potential step to closing the age-related voting gap.
• Having information about how, when and where to vote can help young people be and feel prepared to vote as well as reduce any level of intimidation they may feel.
• A state’s laws related to voter registration and voting can have an impact on youth voter turnout. Seven out of the top 10 youth turnout states had some of the more ambitious measures, including Election Day registration, voting by mail (Oregon), or not requiring registration to vote (North Dakota).

This year’s “Certified to Serve” event, which allows students to complete the background check and fingerprinting required for all volunteers at DC Public Schools will be held:

September 26th, 11am-2pm

The Nashman Center (837 22nd Street NW)

Students should complete the following form prior to coming (it includes a form from DCPS they should print and bring with them): go.gwu.edu/nashmanDCPS

If students are not available during these times, or if they need to complete this process sooner, they may go to the DC Public Schools central offices (1200 First Street NE) any time during regular business hours. Follow the instructions at this link:  https://dcps.dc.gov/page/volunteer-our-schools

The GW Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program is hosting their inaugural panel event in their Alumni Speaker Series on Monday, September 17th, 2018. The panel features graduates of the Women’s Studies program who will discuss their work and opportunities for change on issues related to women, gender, and sexuality. Register for free and get more information here.

The George Washington University School of Nursing, as part of the Health Policy Leadership Lecture Series, will be hosting U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams on Monday, October 1, 2018 to speak about the Opioid Epidemic and Better Health Through Better Partnerships. Register for free and get more information here.

Each year, the School Without Walls seniors work on a yearlong project involving a research paper, an innovative product or event, and a public presentation. This year, the Nashman Center is partnering with SWW to provide undergraduate student mentors for participating seniors.

The first two mentoring sessions will occur on Thursday, September 13th and Thursday September 20th. During these sessions, GW volunteers will provide feedback on student proposals, editing to resolve grammatical, stylistic, and rhetorical errors. For more information and registration, click here.

Cristal Chanelle Truscott is an artist, scholar, educator, dialogue facilitator and founder of Progress Theatre, a Houston-based, nationally and internationally-touring ensemble of multi-disciplined artists committed to using theatre as anti-racism engagement to encourage social consciousness, cross-community dialogue and cultural awareness.

She is the 2018-2019 William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor of Community Engagement at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design. She will be giving an Artist Talk at Hammer Auditorium on Monday, September 17th. Register for free here.

 

In order to increase voter participation among GW students, GW has subscribed to an easy service that will help students to register and participate in elections no matter where in the US they have residence.

GW Votes is a nonpartisan coalition of students, faculty, and staff that promotes voter registration and participation among our students. There are many activities planned to support nonpartisan voter registration and participation as well as a tool, GW Turbovote, to help students learn the voting process in their community and reminds them when to participate.

GW students are highly politically aware and active.  GW Votes makes it easy to find out how and when you can vote in your community. Make sure you cast your ballot in this important election! Visit us for more information and to see our on-campus events, including the party at the mailbox!

 

The Consumer Health Foundation (CHF) is committed to advocating for racial equity and racial justice in the Washington, D.C., region where issues of housing affordability, gentrification and displacement are top of mind for those of us in the social sector.

On October 18th from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. you will have the opportunity to visit one of three District neighborhoods to learn from community members about their histories, their lived experiences of displacement, and their aspirations for their families, communities and the District. Please select one community when you register. This registration will automatically sign you up for the event at Blind Whino.

CHF will then provide transportation to the Blind Whino SW Arts Club and from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. we will enjoy food and art and engage in dialogue with special guest speaker and civil rights attorney, Aristotle Theresa. Mr. Theresa was featured in the Washington Post this year for his bold legal strategy to hold the District of Columbia accountable for alleged racist, classist and ageist housing policies. You will learn more about the lawsuit, why Mr. Theresa has pursued this strategy and how it fits within the larger set of strategies to stymie displacement.

We will confirm your community selection as we get closer to the event date. Please plan to use public transportation to meet in your selected community and CHF will provide transportation from the community to the Blind Whino SW Arts Club.

Registration is open now and free - click here for the event page. For any questions about the event, please send an email to chf@consumerhealthfdn.org.

The 2018 Annual Conference on Citizenship, "It's Your Democracy!" will be hosted by the National Conference on Citizenship on October 17-18th at the Marriot Marquis.

This year, with the theme It’s YOUR Democracy, the conference will bring together activists and reformers, stalwarts and newcomers, leaders and followers, bystanders now taking action, and people who are talking and listening closely for the pulse of our Civic Life. Their goal is to inspire, engage, and inform. They seek to give conference participants a unique opportunity to build new relationships and connect to new networks.

Click here for the Conference Agenda and Registration Information.

Save the Date for the Fall 2018 Symposium on Community-Engaged Scholarship! It will take place on Friday, December 7th, 2018 from 12 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. on the 3rd Floor of the Marvin Center.

At the end of each semester, the Nashman Center hosts the Symposium on Community-Engaged Scholarship. This event invites students, faculty, and community partners to share their experiences, disseminate findings, and learn about many other campus/community initiatives.

Many faculty incorporate Symposium participation into their course design, particularly those who assign Showcase or Panel Presentations as graded work. All students and faculty are encouraged to attend, even if they are not presenting as a class or individually, to learn about and support community-engaged scholarship at GW.

Registration for students and faculty can be found here. A tentative schedule of the Fall 2018 Symposium can be found below.

On Tuesday, September 25th, 2018 we will be hosting our second Breakfast Conversation on Community-Engaged Scholarship in the National Churchill Library and Center at Gelman Library.

Join us for guest speakers Zaneeta Daver, Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Amy Cohen, Executive Director of the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.

September 25 is National Voter Registration Day and we will discuss the role of college faculty in encouraging and preparing students to vote. Voting is critical thinking in action. Reason, science, and humanism matter in students' civic lives as much as they matter in your disciplinary field. This conversation will begin with data on GW's student voting rates and on campus practices that increase voter-turnout.

RSVP here and check out the rest of the Fall 2018 Events Schedule here.

Nashman Center and the National Churchill Library and Center at Gelman Library hosted faculty for our first Breakfast Conversation on Community-Engaged Scholarship of the 2018-2019 school year! We were happy to welcome back our diverse, talented group of faculty to GW and make everyone aware of new ways we can support and promote their work this year.

We welcomed back Nashman Affiliated Faculty and announced new affiliated faculty as well.  Dr. Wendy Wagner presented on the new course designation process for Community-Engaged Scholarship classes and the Washington D.C. 101 resource.  Email Dr. Wendy Wagner (wagner@gwu.edu) or Rachel Talbert (rachellt@gwu.edu) if you want access to the D.C. 101 resource and learn more about the course designation process here.

Faculty shared ideas and participated in great discussions about their experiences and what they will be doing this year.  Community-Engaged Scholars Ashley Hidalgo and Yuval Lev presented a powerpoint on the new GWServes platform and what using it looks like for both professors and students.  We hope you'll take time to get familiar with it here and see what classes are offered at GW.  We hope you'll be inspired to designate your own course!

If you are struggling with GWServes, a link to the powerpoint and audio directions can be found by clicking here.  Please reach out to any member of our team for help as we transition to GWServes.

Thank you all those who came out!  Our next Conversation on Community-Engaged Scholarship with take place on September 25th, 2018 as we welcome Zaneeta Daver, Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Amy Cohen, Executive Director of the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, to speak about the role of college faculty in encouraging and preparing students to vote.