New Voters Club honored with Civic Engagement Award

On Nov. 29, members of the 2018 New Voters Club were recognized by Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres, State Senator Andy Dinniman and State Representative Warren Kampf at a ceremony held at Conestoga High School. The club volunteers were determined to achieve 85 percent of eligible seniors registered to vote and as a result of the club’s accomplishments, received the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award and Gold Level Award Distinction. Conestoga High School was the first high school in the state to receive this prestigious award along with being the first school to submit an application.

Jahnavi Rao, a Conestoga High School Senior, started 2018 New Voters, a grassroots political organization, after the 2016 election and spearheaded its campaign. 2018 New Voters is a non-partisan group that works to give a voice to those who were not eligible to vote in 2016, and to empower youth in general. With the help of Mrs. Whelan, Mrs. Ciamacca, Dr. Meisinger and Ms. Buckley, 2018 New Voters continued to grow, culminating in a large scale voting drive for those eligible in 2017.

At the ceremony, Jahnavi received special recognition and was presented with a Certificate of Achievement from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition, Senator Dinniman and Representative Kampf invited the 2018 New Voters members to be their guests for a visit to the State Capital and will be honoring Jahnavi as the clerk for the day.

2018 New Voters: (Front row, from left) Robert Torres, Acting Secretary of State; Jahnavi Rao, Max Mooney, Pramita Mital, Kelsey Bennett, Avani Gandhi, Andy Dinniman, State Senator; Warren Kampf, State Representative; Leonard Chen, Kent Hjelm,Grace...