Brenda Caldwell
North Carolina A&T State University
Brenda, a junior Political Science major at North Carolina A&T State University, has an outstanding ability to lead and inspire fellow students to engage. Evidence of this was through her involvement with voter education and registration. Brenda personally registered 525 students to vote, organized the University’s National Voter Registration Day efforts which yielded 648 registrations, worked with Color of Change to create a petition and movement to request the restoration of our early polling site, and brought students together to attend the board of elections meetings. From her leadership efforts, the campus was successful in their pursuit to have an early election site on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University. In addition, she attended the NC College Voter Summit, planned and executed our Fall Political Action Week, and spoke at the Poor People's Campaign Moral Monday March.
Personal Statement
My freshman year of high school, I began what I consider my journey to becoming socially aware. I started reading the works of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Huey Newton, and joined the youth chapter of the NAACP. When I got to college, I knew I wanted to continue making an impact. I volunteered at our National Voter Registration Day event both my freshman and sophomore years, but I wanted to do more, so I decided to run for a position in student government. After running a successful campaign to be Attorney General, I used my platform to advance civic engagement on campus. I planned our university’s 2019 National Voter Registration Day event which yielded 648 registrations in 3 hours, trained other students how to register voters, went to classes and organization meetings to conduct registration, and planned and implemented our fall and spring political action weeks. I also worked with other students to get an early polling site on our campus for the primary election. All of this work has shown me how huge an impact young people can have on our political processes, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of my fellow students.
