Ceci Schleinitz: Beyond the Ballot: Youth Leaders Are Born

By Sonia Banker

The coolest thing about Ceci Schleinitz--among many cool things--is that she gets to mentor students who are just a few years younger than she. So, she’s like the cool aunt who is also wise and strict. After the election ends, she says,  it’s easy to sit back and think that the work is over. But think again. Because sometimes the greatest impact happens beyond the ballot. Sometimes, it’s those moments of quiet when young people discover the power of voting for the first time. They slowly understand that voting is not something to be taken for granted, but something to be harnessed. These young people become leaders, and they soon inspire the people around them to join them. All this to say, civic engagement is happening all the time. 

All the time.

It’s kind of what happened to Schleinitz, now a rising senior at Temple University and the Philly-Area Lead Organizer for PA Youth Vote.  a nonpartisan organization dedicated to uplifting the youth voice at the polls. Cece was introduced to voting in her rural Massachusetts hometown where she grew up. Then her emerging political, cultural, and economic views began to differ from the majority of her neighbors. She also noticed that her peers often took advantage of their voting rights. “If you’re taking your right to vote for granted,” Cece said, “it probably means that you have seen these systems work well for you in the past, and that you don’t have a need to change these systems right away because it’s not that relevant in your life”. 

While her upbringing taught her to think about the power of voting, her process of growing from someone who cared to someone who acted truly began when she moved to Philadelphia. A chance encounter at a Temple University television show is where Cece met the CEO of PA Youth Vote, Angelique Hinton. When both were asked to speak about youth political engagement, they immediately connected. After the show, Cece reached out to Angelique and helped with her first event, a voter registration initiative for the Temple Football Team.

Angelique’s presentation at that event, Cece said, was life-changing: “The perspective was completely different from any voter registration group I had ever seen. It was catered toward the people in the audience and why voting was specifically important to their lives.” 

The strength of the presentation and the power of the female leaders inspired Cece to become more involved with PA Youth Vote.

The rest of the year, Cece says, was a huge learning curve. She would attend events across the city of Philadelphia and she would shadow PA Youth Vote Staff, talking to any kind of voter about their process and reasons for voting. These events allowed her to become a leader in the space, brainstorming new workshops and presentations throughout the weeks. “There’s no other way to learn what’s important to a group of people than just speaking to them,” she said. In the months leading up to the election, Cece has hosted dozens of conversations with young people in schools. She hosted a company-wide conference in Pittsburgh and mentored other youth over the summer. In the fall, she went directly into schools to host voter education presentations. 

Cece laid out a guide for me for how she approached conversations with prospective voters. This guide, she says, not only helped young people relate voting to the issues they saw in their lives, but also showed them that she could be a supportive, fun, and positive resource for them. Soon, she became friends with many of the young people she conversed with, even attending concerts with them. Cece typically uses this framework with students:

1. Ask a little bit about your friend that day: what are you doing today, how is school, what are you looking forward to? If you don’t know the person, you can ask: where did you grow up, how old are you, what do you love to do?

2. What’s your current opinion on voting?

3. What are some community issues that you personally care about? What are some ways you think your community could be improved?

4. Do you know who is behind these issues you care about (trash pickup, re-paving of the streets, better education, etc.)? 

5. Explain who is in charge of those issues and how exactly they change those issues (you may have to do some research here). 

6. But the power is in your hands! You vote for them. If we don’t vote, they don’t know that the issues we care about are important to us. 

7. Frame your perspective in a way that’s genuine, show that you’re a resource and you’re there to help support your friend. 

8. End the conversation by reminding them that while voting is a fundamental tool, there are many other tools to engage in advocacy.

   
   

According to Cece, conversations like these can sometimes be extremely difficult. Students can be unresponsive or hesitant about the prospect of voting. But leading with empathy goes a long way. “Young leaders are the best people to inspire other young people to vote,” she says. “Think about people from different experiences, different walks of life from you, and how you can be a personal advocate for those people in your life by using your vote.” Approaching the voting process from a place of compassion and fun has been the cornerstone of Cece’s philosophy as a youth leader. She’s adopted these techniques from the leaders who came before, and she has worked with PA Youth Vote to enhance these techniques and bring them to students around her. “We want to create leaders who will go back into their community and inspire someone else to become a leader,” she says. It’s her superpower: leading, yes, but also inspiring other young people to do the same. 

She insists that while it is a super important tool to engage in political change, “Voting is not the only thing you can do. You are the future.” As the PAYouthVote.org says, “PA teens can work as student leaders, poll workers, campaign workers, and even run for elected office!

Teens can write to your elected officials and call. Protest, learn about issues and share info with friends.

So what’s the moral of the story? Beyond the ballot is where some of the best work happens. Cece is a great example of how effective youth leadership can be in encouraging all people to vote. So to all of the teens reading who are thinking about elections to come, have one conversation with someone you know using Cece’s guide above. With any luck, you’ll be inspired to continue the work and you’ll be a leader before you know it. (And register. And vote.)

Sonia Banker is majoring in Political Science. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Penn Political Review and a former opera singer with a love for classical music.