Ithaca College

Voting is a fundamental right for all Americans and exercising that right in all elections, local, state, and national, can help create meaningful change. Any difference in a community starts at the ballot box, and voting allows citizens to affect the most important issues to society. 

The Roy H Park School of Communications at Ithaca College will observe this by providing an opportunity for students to secure internship credit, both credit and noncredit (.5 to 1 credit) in the Fall of 2020.

"The Park School wants to do more than just prepare the storytellers of tomorrow. We want to produce model citizens, and I can't think of a better way than having our students engage in the political process," says Dr. Jack Powers, Interim Dean at the Roy H Park School of Communications.

Election experiences can include but are not limited to:

• Poll working. 

• Election monitoring.

• Biographical information and issue positions of candidates and elected officials.

• Legislative research.

• Evaluations and ratings by special interest groups.

• Public statements made by members of Congress.

• Other (local, state, national) election activities can be approved at submission.

The "election credit" opportunity requires submission of an IC Handshake application with the following information and documents included: a current resume, the learning objectives of the experience, confirmation of the election role by the site supervisor and/or volunteer coordinator, and a certificate indicating completion of IC's required harassment training. Students will also be asked to review and sign the required COVID-19 guideline and waiver forms. 

After approval, students will be expected to submit weekly artifacts related to the experience and to participate in a December 2020 cohort virtual "report out" of the experience with their peers.  

The Park School of Communications is partnering with the School of Business in designating the noncredit experiences as a zero credit Career Exploration opportunity. 

"Simply put, our democracy depends on young people participating in the process. No matter what issues they care about, they will be impacted by this (and future) elections - both locally and nationally. They are our future leaders, and we need to hear their voice," says Dr. David Harker, Director IC Center for Civic Engagement.

For more information contact Ann-Marie Adams, interim Professional Development Coordinator in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at aadams4@ithaca.edu. 

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Ann Marie Adams at aadams4@ithaca.edu or (607) 229-8071. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.