Building 21 High School receives statewide recognition for its culture of civic engagement

HARRISBURG, Pa. — At Building 21 High School, Allentown students turn their civics knowledge into action with each election cycle.

They register themselves to vote, cast their ballots and help others do the same.

That work has earned Building 21 its seventh consecutive Governor’s Civic Engagement Award for registering a significant number of eligible students to vote.

Five of Building 21’s students also earned the state’s high school poll worker award for helping to run local voting locations on Election Day.

Building 21 was the only Lehigh Valley school represented in either awards category.

“Civic learning is and must remain a bipartisan priority because a well-informed, engaged citizenry is the foundation of a healthy democracy,” state Executive Deputy Education Secretary Angela Fitterer said.

At a Thursday news conference in Harrisburg, Building 21 and other winners from across the state were celebrated for their efforts.

Governor's Civic Engagement Awards

The Governor’s Civic Engagement Awards were created in 2017 by Pennsylvania’s departments of state and education to encourage high school students to participate in the electoral process.

Throughout the past eight years, Pennsylvania high school students have helped register more than 25,000 of their peers to vote through the program.

This year the winners registered about 5,000 students.

Thirty-three high schools won Governor’s Civic Engagement Awards across 16 counties.

Of those, 19 were gold-level winners that registered at least 85% of eligible students at their schools to vote. That group includes Building 21.

The remaining silver-level winners registered at least 65% of eligible students but less than 85%.

“These newly registered students are part of the next generation of voters who will determine the future of our commonwealth and our country,” said Al Schmidt, secretary of the commonwealth.

Getting involved in the electoral process

Jennitza Claudio, an 18-year-old Allentown School District senior, said Building 21 helped her learn that voting is among the ways she can have an impact on her community.

As a young Latina and person of color, Claudio said she didn’t receive many messages growing up that she had such agency.

“Out in the world, I heard that my opinion wasn’t needed or that I didn’t know enough to contribute,” she said at Thursday’s news conference.

“But I knew that my community was important to me, and I wanted to make a difference. High school became the place that I learned that I could.”

Claudio said that, as do many young people, she grew up without seeing an adult regularly vote or talk about elections.

In fact, it was her own involvement that inspired her mother to vote in the last general election, she said.

Claudio went to see former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz when he visited Bethlehem’s Freedom High School last fall.

Claudio’s excitement about the race was contagious, and her mother decided to support former Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the presidency, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

“I think she realized, ‘Hey, my daughter’s doing it, I’m going to do it, too,’” Claudio told LehighValleyNews.com.

Students become poll workers

Claudio also won a student poll worker award. She served as a student poll worker in Allentown for the past four elections through Lehigh County’s program, which began in 2022.

Allentown students from Allen and Dieruff high schools also participate in the county program, as well as students from Executive Education Academy Charter School.

“The first time I was nervous because I’m not really used to going out there and meeting new people,” Claudio said. “But [in] my experience, everybody in there was really nice.”

Claudio enjoyed hearing stories from older poll workers and called it a “heartwarming” experience.

“You’re seeing different points of view than what you know or what you were around.”

Being bilingual, Claudio also served as an interpreter for Spanish speakers, helping them through the voting process at the polling location.

“For me to be able to give that type of access to them, it helps a lot for me,” she said. “It gives me a type of motivation.”

Doh Nay Kaw, a 17-year-old junior at Building 21, served as poll worker in Allentown during the past two elections. She also earned a poll worker award from the state.

Kaw helped voters sign in, gave them their ballots and directed them on the process to cast their votes.

Getting paid for her work was a good incentive for becoming a poll worker, she said.

Kaw and other student poll workers were paid $195 per Election Day. They worked from 6 a.m. until after 8 p.m., when the polls closed to make sure everyone in line could vote.

They also stayed after to help clean up.

Though Kaw said she was excited to earn money, she also enjoyed the experience. It made her more aware of the electoral process and politics, she said.

Now, she’s ready to vote in the next election after she turns 18 in fall.

“I think voting is a privilege, and I’m ready for that privilege,” Kaw said.

Jenny Roberts

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LehighValleyNews.com

Increasing voting knowledge

Jeremy Pinedo, an 18-year-old Building 21 senior, also worked at the polls for the past two elections and served as an interpreter for Spanish speakers.

Pinedo, another winner of a student poll worker award, said voting always seemed “mysterious” to him growing up. Though his mother would regularly vote, she didn’t bring him along to see the process, he said.

“I didn’t know exactly what she was doing,” he said. “Now, actually being able to vote and being a poll worker, has opened my mind to a lot of things I didn’t know [were] going on.”

Getting students familiar with the electoral process and comfortable with voting is exactly what Building 21 social studies teacher Shannon Salter aims to do.

After all, students call her the “voting lady,” and her work at Building 21 was featured in The Washington Post last year ahead of the presidential election.

“A school can be a place that becomes sort of a surrogate civic family,” Salter, who is also the school’s partnership coordinator, said.

The high school’s social studies department makes a concerted effort to translate content to participation in civic life, she said.

Voting part of 'our values'

In her classes, Salter teaches about the expansion of voting rights to different groups of people and the impacts of voter turnout rates.

She also teaches students about media literacy and how they can find reliable sources of information.

During the presidential election last fall, students were eager to discuss the candidates’ immigration proposals and how their policies could impact them and their families, Salter said.

Allentown’s sizable immigrant population made the topic of interest. An immigrant background can also impact students’ familiarity with voting, Salter said.

While students may be citizens, sometimes their parents are not, which means they can’t vote. Other times, parents are citizens, but a language barrier has kept them away from the polls.

For students who haven’t been exposed to the electoral process, Building 21 can help inform them, Salter said.

Creating a culture of civic engagement at the high school has been essential, she said. And continually winning the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award each year has helped keep the student body motivated.

'Do your part'

Salter noted Building 21 has won the award every year that the school has had 18-year-olds enrolled; Building 21 only opened 10 years ago.

“I’m really proud of the work we’ve done,” Salter said. “But more than that I’m proud to be part of a school building and a school district that supports sustaining this effort.”

Building 21 holds voter registration drives three times each academic year, helping students register online or through a paper form. Salter and trained students help the school’s teens through the process.

As students see their older peers voting and getting involved each year, they become excited to do the same when it’s their turn, she said.

“It really enforces that this is something our community values," she said.

"And you’re part of our community and we’re counting on you to not just sustain tradition, but do your part and live our values in the world.”