Tevon Blair talks about Vote HBCU during our ESSENCE 'Paint The Polls Black' podcast.
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00:00VoteHBCU, it's a program of Excel Leader.
00:02We kicked off this work back in 2020
00:04to educate, mobilize, and empower HBCU students
00:07to be informed voters.
00:09We just got off our 10-stop tour.
00:11We went to Virginia State, Howard University, Tuskegee,
00:15Shaw, FAMU, Bethune-Cookman.
00:17And we were able to really see the power of HBCU students
00:21when they have the ability to lead
00:24and when they're able to make their voices heard
00:26and not in the space where someone's telling them
00:27to go vote for something or to vote for us
00:29specific person.
00:31This was an opportunity for students
00:32to not only lead this effort on their campus,
00:35but to come together and mobilize their student
00:37community to do this work.
00:39And so Excel Leader, we are a community of HBCU alumni
00:42who build leaders, impact HBCUs, and change the world.
00:45And I'm just honored to have a cohort of 10 fellows.
00:48These are just two of the 10 fellows
00:50that we have that picked up the charge
00:53to mobilize their students.
00:55We were able to register 859 students
00:57on our tour across these 10 schools for 31 days.
01:01And Promise, Skyteria, Anijah, they led this effort.
01:07We all came to Atlanta this summer.
01:09They learned the importance
01:11of what disinformation looks like versus misinformation.
01:14They learned how policy works
01:16as well as how to register their students to vote.
01:18And so that legacy and culture
01:20that they were able to build this work off of
01:22was able to live on campus and make it live.
01:24So that's a bit about us,
01:26but the students are the ones who really put this work on
01:30and made a shift in how HBCU students consider
01:33and see themselves in the voting room.