The students at Building 21 have already been recognized for the past two years in a row for their success in graduating students who are registered and ready to vote.  Each of the past two years the school has been recognized with the Governor's Civic Engagement Award (https://www.votespa.com/Resources/Pages/Governor's-Civic-Engagement-Award.aspx).  This year's deadline for completing the award's requirements was moved to late May due to the rescheduling of PA's primary, but Building 21 had already reached the threshold (at almost 90%) for repeating last year's Gold level recognition and when winners are announced we will again be on the list.

This year, students decided to look beyond Pennsylvania this year and join in national efforts to register young voters.  Led by teacher Shannon Salter, the group found an opportunity when former First Lady Michelle Obama's non-profit When We All Vote joined with MTV to create the 2020 Prom Challenge.  Schools were invited to share their experiences in registering young voters, for a chance to be recognized with one of 20 up-to $5,000 grants for schools to use towards their prom, or towards future voter registration events.  Just before the closure of schools, several of our students collaborated with their teacher to submit their story for consideration.