North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), the nation’s largest HBCU, has a proud legacy of civic leadership and student activism. Through the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement (OLCE) and the Civic Engagement Coalition, we coordinate a comprehensive, student-driven, nonpartisan voter engagement program that integrates civic learning into the Aggie experience.
Like students throughout the country, NC A&T’s student body faces significant barriers to participating in elections. These barriers grew in 2024 after North Carolina implemented a new law mandating the use of voter ID – something young people disproportionately lack – by both in-person and mail-in voters. OLCE worked to address this challenge with a model that blends peer-to-peer organizing, faculty and staff support, and partnerships with community organizations to ensure that every student is empowered to register, learn, and vote in accordance with the new legislation.
Executing this strategy required proactive communication and coalition support. OLCE trained 45 student leaders and 15 student organizations through its Civic Champions program, teaching them to answer FAQs, dispel myths, and walk peers through the voting process. OLCE partnered with groups like NC Black Alliance to provide fiscal and logistical resources, while the Guilford County Board of Elections supported OLCE in resolving site-level issues. Additionally, OLCE launched targeted campaigns such as “Know Before You Go” and integrated voter ID and residency information into Welcome Week, tabling, and social media outreach.
The OLCE team also leaned into NC A&T’s amazing culture of activation and celebration, using events such as Welcome Week Vote Ready, Meet the Greeks + National Voter Registration Day, Clash of the Orgs, and the Ballot Declassified Voter Education Fair to create multiple touchpoints for students to engage with the democratic process. Signature cultural events like V-OTEC-O-MING: The Greatest Poll Darty and Stroll to the Polls turned voting into a shared community tradition. Collectively, these efforts resulted in 4,765 students registered to vote and 2,383 students casting ballots at NC A&T’s on-campus polling site.
Beyond the numbers, these efforts succeeded in demonstrating the power of a student-led, peer-to-peer engagement model that helped voters overcome barriers by turning civic responsibility into something to celebrate. By integrating voter registration and education into high-traffic student events and creating culturally relevant programming, OLCE helped sustain campus energy around civic engagement and set a new standard for democratic participation at NC A&T. This outcome reinforced OLCE’s mission of cultivating informed, empowered students who see voting as a core part of the Aggie experience.
Even after voting took place, more than 700 students showed up for OLCE’s Election Day Watch Party. Programming then continued through Spring 2025, with dialogue sessions, panels, simulations, and more – demonstrating the staying power of democratic engagement as a core feature of NC A&T’s campus culture.