The Students Learn Students Vote (“SLSV”) Coalition, the largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to growing college student voter participation, honored 12 organizations and college campuses on Friday, November 22 at the 2024 National Student Vote Summit (“the Summit”) for their outstanding nonpartisan efforts to make voting easier, more accessible, and more equitable for college students in the run-up to the 2024 election, which saw students turn out in large numbers in key states throughout the US.
More than 350 attendees from 35 different states, including 200 college students, attended the Summit, which took place November 20-22 at the University of Maryland, College Park (“UMD”). In addition to students, the three-day event gathered university faculty and staff, more than 100 representatives from nonprofit organizations, local and state election officials from throughout the US, as well as numerous philanthropic partners who support nonpartisan student voter engagement work. All attendees gathered this week to build connections within the nonpartisan student democratic engagement space, share lessons learned, and provide training and resources for student voter engagement efforts in 2025 and beyond.
The Summit culminated with the 2024 SLSV Awards, which recognized 12 organizations and college campuses that best exemplify the SLSV Coalition’s guiding principles.
“The 2024 SLSV Awardees are shining examples of nonpartisan organizations and college campuses that truly walk the walk and live the values and guiding principles that our collaborative movement is built upon,” said SLSV Coalition Co-Founder and Executive Director Clarissa Unger. “Each of them helped empower college students in their own way, whether by eliminating barriers to the vote, making the process more fun and celebratory, or helping communities stay informed and engaged in the process.”
The 2024 SLSV Award recipients are:
- Centering and Trusting Local Leaders: The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge
- Contributing to an Equitable Democracy: Xceleader
- Advancing Student Success and Retention: The Ohio State University and the University of Texas San Antonio
- Committing to Racial Justice: Alabama State University
- Making Democracy Fun and Celebratory: Civic Responsibility Project & Daybreaker’s Party to the Polls Purple Tour
- Collaborating for Greater Impact: Geaux Vote LSU, and Levi Strauss & Co
- Investing in Institutionalization: Carnegie Mellon University
- Leading through Nonpartisanship: Centre College
- Removing Barriers and Increasing Access: VoteRiders, Miami Dade College
For the second consecutive year, the Summit was co-hosted by the SLSV Coalition, UMD, TerpsVote, and the Maryland Democracy Initiative. Following the 2024 election, this year’s event marked a key opportunity for the SLSV Coalition to assess its work to grow student voter engagement in 2024, share lessons learned, and identify new ways to meet student needs as they evolve across future election cycles.
“This is such an important moment for our work and for the nonpartisan student vote movement to reflect on everything we’ve accomplished together,” said SLSV Coalition Deputy Director Eddy Zerbe. “We’re proud to celebrate our 2024 award recipients because of how they represent the work of this Coalition in its entirety.”
The 2024 National Student Vote Summit was made possible thanks to support from the following sponsors:
- The University of Maryland
- TerpsVote
- Maryland Democracy Initiative
- Institute for Responsive Government
- Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute
- VoteRiders
- League of Women Voters
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- The Ronald Reagan Institute
- University of Minnesota
- Young Invincibles
About the SLSV Coalition
The SLSV Coalition is the national hub and largest nonpartisan network in the United States dedicated to increasing college student voter participation. The Coalition convenes and connects partners, campuses, and students with each other and with resources and programming towards achieving a vision of ensuring that every student has easy and equal access to participate in every election. They use data, relationships, celebration, and easy-to-follow planning structures, to help campus and local leaders register and turnout more student voters every year. The SLSV Coalition is a project of NEO Philanthropy. NEO Philanthropy is strictly nonpartisan, and does not support or oppose any candidate or party.