A newsletter giving you handcrafted monthly updates about our voter registration efforts in our goal to register one million youth voters.
As we kick off 2026, New Voters is focused on strengthening the systems that allow students to lead voter registration themselves. This January, we launched our first fiscal sponsorship with a Minnesota high school-led organization, partnered with the Arizona Cardinals to reach thousands of students, onboarded a new class of college mentors who will provide personalized guidance to each of our drive leaders, and launched the New Voters 250 Fellowship to support hundreds of student-run drives in 2026.
New Voters is proud to announce our first fiscal sponsorship with the Youth Voter Project, a Minnesota-based, youth-led organization supporting high school voter registration statewide. Through this partnership, New Voters will provide the operational backbone needed to help Youth Voter Project grow sustainably, while preserving its autonomy as a student-run organization. With all eyes on Minnesota, we’re proud to invest in the students doing the real work of registering their peers and building civic participation from the ground up.
“I am beyond excited to partner with New Voters,” shared Kyle Chen, Executive Director of the Youth Voter Project and a junior in high school. “This partnership means two major things for us: fiscal reliability and a network of experts that know this work inside-out. We are confident that with the help of New Voters, we’ll be able to ensure the civic participation of many more young Minnesotans.”
This sponsorship reflects New Voters’ commitment to backing high school students in leading their own civic engagement efforts and strengthening youth-led infrastructure nationwide.
On January 20, the New Voters Arizona Team partnered with the Arizona Cardinals to participate in the Civics Matters Summit at State Farm Stadium, convening 4,500 high school students from across Arizona.
New Voters hosted breakout workshops training over 400 students on how to run voter registration drives in their schools. Sessions emphasized connecting civic participation to real, student-led actions already taking place in local communities, including service projects, school-based initiatives, and peer organizing.
The New Voters 250 Fellowship kicked off this month with the first installment of a 10 webinar series, featuring our President and Founder Jahnavi Rao. Jahnavi spoke directly to the 125 fellows from across the country, sharing the founding story of New Voters and inspiring them to believe in themselves and the impact of high school organizing. The webinars will continue each month through November, highlighting speakers across areas of the fellow’s interest including Climate Change, Gun Control, Education Reform, and Public Health.
We are pleased to announce our eight Spring 2026 College Mentors, who coach our high school student leaders to run nonpartisan voter registration drives in their schools, bringing civic engagement into the classroom and changing the culture of voting from the ground up. With just under 150 applicants for this semester’s program, we were thrilled and overwhelmed with just how many qualified young leaders were interested in joining (and returning!) to the work of New Voters in our most competitive cycle yet.
Katherine Beck joins New Voters in her fifth position with the organization, and second semester as a mentor. She is a junior at UCLA studying Public Affairs and Business Economics.
Rachel Ledoux is a sophomore at Simmons University, majoring in Political Science and Economics
Aneri Narayan joins us for her second semester as a mentor, and is a graduating senior at the University of Southern California double majoring in Political Science and Data Science.
Henry Pahlow, studying government at Harvard College, returns for his third semester as a mentor.
Deven Sawkar is a senior at William & Mary, graduating in May with his B.A. in Government.
Emma Shultz is a sophomore at Stanford University, majoring in Economics
Namrata Venkatesan is returning for her third semester as a mentor with New Voters. Namrata is a junior at UCLA, studying Cognitive Science and Education Studies
Jennifer Yu is a freshman at Northeastern University, majoring in Political Science
If you follow us on social media, you may recognize our highlighted drive leader this month. We’re proud to feature Nadia Freitag, a long time Communications Team member and face of New Voters, who ran our final voter registration drive of 2025! Nadia set up her drive at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts on December 22nd, bringing the holiday spirit to voter registration.
Nadia is a great example of how virtual engagement can lead to real world impact- we’re so proud of all the work she continues to do both on the ground and behind the scenes!
New Voters is honored to partner with civic organizations across the country who are dedicated to making the democratic process more accessible to all. Check out these awesome openings from partners:
Plain Policy is currently seeking a Social Media & External Partnerships Coordinator to help expand their reach, build relationships with youth-focused and civic organizations, and connect more voters with accessible policy information. This role is ideal for someone interested in democracy, digital outreach, and youth engagement.
For more information, connect With the Plain Policy Team by emailing: plainpolicy011@gmail.com
Asian Texans for Justice is excited to announce that applications for our 2026 Civic Engagement Fellowship are open until February 9 at 12 PM. This fellowship is designed to equip the next generation of leaders with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to turn advocacy into action through civic engagement and public service. For more information and the full application, click here!
High School Students: Sign up to run a drive at your school
Not a high school student? Refer a high school student you know to run a registration drive
Check your voter registration status, register to vote, and more with New Voters’ official Voter Toolkit.
Sincerely,
Jahnavi, Ashleigh, and the New Voters Team
Did you like what you saw today? Venmo @New-Voters $5 or pledge a future subscription to mobilize the youth for the 2024 Election!
Sign up to run a drive here.
New Voters is a 501(c)3 dedicated to helping high school student leaders make positive change through civic engagement. We have 300+ high school chapters across 39 states and have registered 80,000 high school students to vote.
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