For Immediate Release

Date:  September 26, 2006

BLOOMSBURG—Two student workers at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania’s volunteer office have dedicated their time this fall to registering young voters and educating students about the importance of voting.

Victoria Yurksza, a junior secondary education and history major, and Jiayan Wu, a graduate student studying business administration, are spearheading the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Voter Registration Project through BU’s SOLVE office.

The goal of the non-partisan project is to register 40,000 young voters nationwide, according to Jean Downing, director of SOLVE. Bloomsburg’s goal is 5 percent of the student body, or approximately 400 students. 

More than 500 BU freshmen registered to vote over orientation weekend. Yurksza and Wu spent the following week checking each registration application individually to verify that the applications were filled out completely and accurately. 

Yurksza then delivered the ballots to the Columbia County Courthouse. Since then, the two students have sent out approximately 1,500 registration cards and organized almost 60 peer-led classroom presentations.

The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 10. Starting Oct. 11, Yurksza and Wu will switch their focus from registering students to encouraging them to vote. “The students have been very enthusiastic about registering, and we just hope that they carry that over to the polls on Election Day,” said Yurksza, of Falls.

Encouraging students to vote is particularly important to Wu, a student from China. “I never voted in China before, because I thought whatever I did would not change everything. But the voting is really important here in Bloomsburg, we need to tell them how important it is for the students to vote,” Wu said.

Voter registration applications are available in the SOLVE office, Warren Student Services Center. For more information, call Downing at (570) 389-4798.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 8,000 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Professional Studies, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.

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