Educators and Community Groups
A menu of interactive, in-school, or virtual lessons, delivered either by League-trained facilitators, classroom teachers, or the students themselves, that motivate and equip students and young adults to vote and take action.
Fighting for the Vote
MODULE 1: The Suffrage Timeline (What’s it worth?)
Immerses students in the sacrifices made to gain the vote— from the start of the nation through the ongoing fight against voter suppression. They join a human suffrage timeline as the avatars they are assigned fight for and gain the vote.
MODULE 2: The Truth about Turnout (Who’s got the power?)and Why Voting Matters
Engages students in an analysis of turnout data focusing on their own age group and ethnicity. They role-play to challenge typical excuses for not voting.
> View Module: Truth About Turnout
> View Training Video: Truth About Turnout
MODULE 3: Vote by Design (How do I choose?)
Guides students through a nonpartisan, issue-agnostic process for selecting candidates whose values and priorities support their own.
> View Modules: Vote By Design
> View Training Video: Vote By Design
MODULE 4: Voting Simulation
Equips students to tackle barriers to registering and voting.
Two versions:
- Voting Simulation
In-person experience from registration to reading a sample ballot, to signing in at the polls, to learning when and how to ask for a provisional ballot, and finally, to vote.
- How to Vote: Rules of the Road
Fighting for Change
MODULE 1: WHAT'S YOUR ISSUE? HOW DO I DETERMINE ISSUES IMPORTANT TO ME?
Students learn that leadership is important, but that leadership is a group process and needs engaged supporters – the fourth branch of government – them. They explore the qualities of an effective leader via discussion of current issues.
MODULE 2: I AM (inform, act, monitor) How do I effect change?
Students identify an issue of importance to them and how the issue evidences itself. Bringing attention to their position, and knowing their rights when doing so, students draft policy and advocate for it.
MODULE 3: Across the divide (How do I actively listen? How do I speak to be heard?)
Students learn to speak so others can ‘hear’ them and listen to understand the beliefs of others. Skills practice helps students learn to express their concerns with conviction and civility.
For more in-depth learning, additional lessons are available. (energizingyoungvoters@gmail.com).
> View Module: Listening & Speaking
> View Training Video: Listening & Speaking
Student Voting Advocate Toolkit (English and Spanish)
- Student Voting Advocate Toolkit
Remote experience teaches students how to register remotely and vote by mail correctly and encourages them to assist family and community members…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES/civics engagement OPPORTUNITIES
- NJ Center for Civic Education
- We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution – provides an understanding of the philosophy underlying our Constitution and Bill of Rights, their impact in history and current-day relevance.
- Project Citizen – a project-based program that helps students understand public policy and emphasizes responsible participation in local and state government agencies to effect change.
- Mock Election
- All Vote No Play is now The Team
- Art the Vote
- iCivics.com – teacher-designed civics lessons
- The Teaching Channel – an online community for educators
- LWV Monmouth Hot Topics ( 2020 Census, Ballot Security, and other up-to-the-minute of interest topics)
- TEXT helpline 732-927-1131 immediate registration and voting help
- VOTE411– LWV info on all things voting in the USA
- How To Vote By Mail
INDIVIDUAL LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
- Governor’s Youth Advisory Council – meet with the governor and/or staff person every other month to provide input from youth on legislation affecting them
- Youth Advisory Board – a diverse group by age (18-29), gender, ethnicity/race, and education type who set direction and policy for Energizing Young Voters
- Be an Ambassador – join a committee (Education, Outreach, Legislative) to help carry out the mission and vision
- Internships (data analysis, research, …) – semester length, college students
- Service Points – Volunteerism, high school age —social media monitoring, administrative assistance, VOTE411 nudging, presenting, materials reviews
- Student Advocate Toolkit – using this reference tool, help others register and vote
- Curriculum Development and Evaluation
SCHOOL-BASED VOTER REGISTRATION INITIATIVES
- Student-led Voter Registration Events- use tools provided by our partner, The Civics Center, to run a successful student-driven voter registration drive in your school.
- Student Voting Toolkit- slides and guides (English & Spanish) to help students help older adults navigate unfamiliar registration and voting procedures
- League of Women Voters- visit https://www.lwv.org/ and scroll down to find your local League. Contact them to set up a voter registration drive in your area
Meet the Developers
Patricia L. Supplee
Education Director
Patricia's Bio
Patricia L. Supplee, Ed.D. is currently the Director of Energizing Young Voters, an initiative of the League of Women Voters. She is a retired educator who taught nationally and internationally at all levels, preschool through university, held administrative positions, and most recently served as a consultant for the Department of State and Georgetown University. Her areas of specialization include curriculum development and evaluation, professional development, and education of the gifted.
Peggy Dellinger
president of the LWV
Peggy's Bio
Peggy Dellinger is the past president of the League of Women Voters of Southern Monmouth County. She is the recipient of the state League of Women Voters’ 2019 Distinguished Leadership Award, the Asbury Park Women’s Convention 2018 Community Star Award, and the 2016 Monmouth County Jane Clayton Award “for outstanding efforts to preserve Monmouth County history.” In her professional career, she coached corporate leaders and co-designed and delivered seminars where corporate and nonprofit leaders aligned strategy with organizational purpose.
Luisa Paster
Advisory Board
Luisa's Bio
Luisa Paster is a librarian retired from 30 years at Princeton University, where she served as Head of the Database Management Section of the Library, Staff Development Librarian, and Staff Development Specialist in the Human Resources Department. She holds Master’s degrees both in Teaching and in Library Science, and has consulted extensively with NJ libraries to develop and present seminars for staff on a variety of public service issues.
Merry Brennan
Merry's Bio
Martha Maselko
Martha's Bio
Martha Maselko has worked inside ATT as a trainer, organizational development consultant, and manager of Affirmative Action Training. She established and held the first ombudsperson function within ATT and trained others across the company. She started a national organization for ombudspeople. Martha has consulted with numerous organizations in the areas of training and conflict management. She holds a Master’s degree in Counseling specializing in group processes.
Lisa Kay Solomon
Lisa's Bio
“The future doesn’t have to be something that happens to us.”
Lisa Kay Solomon designs environments, experiences and classes to help people expand their futures, adapt to complexities, and build civic fellowship. Her work blends imagination with possibility, building the capacity to take the long view when today’s problems seem overwhelming.
Currently a Designer in Residence at the Stanford d. school, Lisa focuses on bridging the disciplines of futures and design thinking, creating experiences like “Vote by Design: Presidential Edition” and “The Future’s Happening” to help students learn and practice the skills they don’t yet know they need. She’s the creator of the AllVoteNoPlay.org playbook that helps thousands of collegiate athletes flex their civic leadership skills. At the d.school, she teaches classes such as Inventing the Future where students imagine, debate and analyze the 50-year futures of emerging tech, and works closely with the K12 community to make futures thinking a mainstay of 21c core curriculum.
Named one of ixDA’s Women of Design 2020, Lisa has also taught leadership and design at the California College of the Art’s MBA in Design strategy, was the founding Chair of Singularity University’s Transformational Practices effort, and has guest lectured at organizations and leadership institutions around the world.
Lisa co-authored the bestselling books Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change, and Design A Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset and Strategy for Innovation, which has been translated into over a dozen languages. Lisa created the popular LinkedIn Learning Courses Leading Like a Futurist and Redesigning How We Work for 2021, and has written extensively on helping leaders productively navigate ambiguity through teachable and learnable practices.
Danielle Fleming
Danielle's Bio
Danielle Fleming (she/her) has been an art educator for over 17 years and is on the board of Art Educators of New Jersey where she serves as advocacy chair. Currently, she is an art teacher with the Keyport Public Schools in Keyport, NJ.
Danielle volunteered with Art the Vote, a nonpartisan community organization with the goal of encouraging everyone to vote through art competitions. As a member of Art the Vote, Danielle served as an advisor and curriculum writer. Danielle’s lesson in our Fighting for Change series (the lesson is also called Art the Vote) helps students who are artistically inclined realize that they, too, have a voice and that they can express that voice through their art as well as by voting.
Jenny Bisha
Jenny's Bio
Jenny Bisha has been in the field of education for over 15 years. She specializes in developing self-determination for students from marginalized communities who have disabilities that impact their education. She is a Colorado-based data-focused educational leader committed to equity in education through inclusion and universal design for learning. Jenny is grateful for the LWV and honored to be a part of the education team in Boulder County, Colorado, where she is committed to energizing young voters.
Donna Ward
Donna's Bio
Donna Ward had a 35-year career in global brand marketing, working for such companies as Bayer, Procter and Gamble, Eastman Kodak and American Cyanamid. She ran over 25 global marketing training seminars and has developed extensive interactive suites of online marketing training courses.
Since retiring, Donna has served on the boards of a number of NJ nonprofits and currently serves as President of the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area, Program Co-Chair of the Northern NJ chapter of Women’s Connection, a national organization for women over 50 and Membership engagement co-chair of Impact 100 Essex . She is a graduate of Princeton University.
