“The Right to Vote vs. The Right to Be Seen as ‘Grown’”
I remember being on the edge of 17, eagerly waiting to turn 18, not only to legally be an adult but also to exercise my voting rights, which I was so ecstatic to do. To me, someone who’s been an advocate for a large portion of her life, voting was a right I was eager to claim and not something I took for granted. Voting has always meant more than just checking a box for me. It represents voice, power, and the ability to shape the world around me. Because of this, I feel a strong responsibility to help my peers understand the power of their vote, what appears on the ballot, who is making decisions, and most importantly, how to access the ballot. At a time when voting access is being challenged rather than protected, that responsibility feels more urgent than ever.
A Campus Built on Civic Power
To me, as an Aggie, attending North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University means walking on a campus rooted in civic engagement and so much history. The legacy of the A&T Four and February 1 serves as a reminder that progress has always come from students who were willing to show opposition to the system that purposefully excludes them. The legacy of those four pivotal men pushes many students to ask themselves: what would they have done if they were in our shoes, facing the adversity that we’re currently facing? History isn’t just something that’s drilled into us; it’s something we’re expected to live up to. But honoring the legacy that’s been laid out for us is difficult to follow when the systems that we’re taught to participate and engage in make it all the more difficult for us to participate.
When The Polls, Leave So Does Access
Recently, polling sites that we’re once at my university, N.C. A&T was taken away by the Greensboro City Council, making it significantly harder for students to vote. For many students, access to a nearby polling site isn’t a convenience. It’s the difference between voting and not voting at all. Students like myself juggle classes, work, clubs, and limited transportation, especially since not all have vehicles or access to one, and some don’t have flexible schedules at all. When access disappears, the participation rate follows. Shia Rozier, an organizer, fellow Aggie, and advocate in the Greensboro area, emphasized the importance of student voting power.
“I would tell students that if their vote didn’t matter, people in power wouldn’t work so hard to try and take it away,” Rozier said. “Just think how much easier and less pushback these officials would have if they had given us a polling site. But they aren’t because your vote is powerful.”
Rozier is a strong advocate for voting representation, and she pushes for students to understand the importance of their one vote.
“In Guilford County, in the municipal election, it’s only a little more than 52,000 people. Now imagine if all 15,000 A&T students voted along with our faculty and staff. We would have the power to dominate the elections and the political atmosphere.”
This is exactly why access and representation matter, and also why it’s so challenged.
The Barrier Isn’t Apathy, It’s Connection
As minorities navigating systems that were neither made for us nor built by us, it’s not unusual to feel disconnected from politics or believe that your vote doesn’t matter. Many people look at their lives and feel that the government hasn’t done anything for them, and that feeling is valid. But that reality makes participation in voting even more critical. Voting is how we elect people who reflect our needs as a community and how we hold them accountable when they fail to do so. Disengagement only benefits those who already hold power. Shia notes that many students feel disconnected because the political system wasn’t built for them.
“It’s easy to feel like the government hasn’t done anything for you,” she says.
But that makes participation even more urgent. Voting is how students elect people who reflect their needs and hold them accountable when they don’t. While voting alone won’t save us, not voting only benefits those already in power.
From Protest to Action
Over the past three years, Shia has attended Board of Elections meetings in protest multiple times. She explains that organizing, mobilizing, and fighting for basic voting access is exhausting but necessary.
“Protests are the voices of the unheard,” she says. “When public comment isn’t allowed, and open dialogue isn’t prioritized, we are forced to raise our voices in other ways.”
Despite being treated as adversaries, Shia emphasizes that students are really constituents; elected officials are supposed to represent them fairly and equitably. She hopes that in the future, officials will see students not as opposition, but as neighbors whose voices matter just as much as anyone else in Guilford County and across North Carolina.
The Legacy Continues
This work has never been done alone. Alongside fellow organizers Olu Rouse and Khadijah Barry, Shia has mobilized students to demand accessible voting options. She believes that student organizing fills the gaps left by institutions and reminds everyone that change comes from persistence, community, and collective action. Instead of letting these barriers discourage students, Shia and the team are turning them into a call to action. On February 12, they will host a March to the Polls, encouraging students to show up, mobilize, and exercise the power that so many before them fought to secure. As Shia notes, this is about more than one election; it’s about protecting students’ voices and honoring the legacy of civic engagement at HBCUs, which is being so strongly tried to be taken away. HBCU students have always been at the forefront of democracy, challenging injustice, expanding access, and redefining what civic engagement looks like. The legacy of A&T lives on through every student who refuses to be silenced.
The question now is not whether our votes matter.
It’s whether we’ll use them.