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Civics Unplugged 🚀

@civicsunplugged

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Ready to set your intentions for 2025? CU Fellow Amaris has you covered with some awesome ideas to bring into the new year! 📅

🌟 A good starting point for any new year’s goal is reflecting on the past year—what are you proud of? What brought you joy? What can you improve?
💫 For Amaris, getting out of her comfort zone was a super rewarding part of 2024! She plans to continue this in 2025 by launching a new magazine that combines her talents and passions.

How are you going to get out of your comfort zone in 2025? What intentions are you bringing into the new year? Let us know down below!

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Still trying to process this year 😵‍💫? Emma’s here to share her reflections on 2024 and her new goals moving forward!

⏰ One big theme of 2024: time management!

⚖️ Emma has learned the importance of staying organized and maintaining a work-life balance despite a hectic schedule.

🫶 Taking time off from work to rest and reconnect with people close to you is just as important to productivity as sitting down to work is—plus, it has some awesome benefits for your mental health!

☄️ Resting can also prevent burnout, which lets you keep working on things your passionate about in the long run.

🗳️ In 2025, Emma will be continuing her advocacy work with preventing gun violence and promoting voter registration initiatives, while making sure to take time off to stay balanced.

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Interested in holiday traditions around the world? CU Fellow Tariq, from Nigeria, is here to share some Nigerian customs for this time of year. Here is how he and many Nigerians plan to celebrate:

💞 Spending quality time with family and friends

🥗 Sharing meals with loved ones

💬 Catching up with people they haven’t seen in a while

🏠 Returning to their hometown and reconnecting with their roots

🎉 Partying

How are you celebrating this holiday season? Let us know in the comments!

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You asked, we answered!

❓ Can I only apply to CU if I’m based in the US?

💬 No, you can apply from anywhere in the world! Our 🖥️DIGITAL💻program, the Civic Innovators Fellowship, is open to students across the world 🌍! Our In-Person program, the Civic Innovation Academy, is only open to students who have completed the Civic Innovators Fellowship.

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Just because Election Day has passed, doesn’t mean voting is over for the next four years! Voting reform is a constant discussion in our democracy, and @mobile.voting is a civic innovation we can get behind! CU Fellow David Seaton-Lorenz is here to shed some light on what this looks like!

❤️ Mobile voting would help address hyperpartisanship by allowing more people to vote in primary elections. It is also much easier to implement than structural reforms like the abolition of the electoral college or rank-choice voting systems.

🤍 Mobile voting would make the electoral process easier and more accessible than ever by allowing voters to cast their ballots digitally at their convenience.

💙 Mobile voting would be especially helpful for groups that currently have trouble making it out to the polls, such as disabled individuals, single parents, and people working multiple jobs.

🇺🇸 The first response you might have to these arguments is wait: how legitimate could digital voting really be? Endless technology testing done by @mobile.voting ensures end-to-end encryption of votes cast so that every vote is valid, not tampered with, and counted correctly.

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🏫 Currently, Minhal is a freshman at Georgetown University interested in studying culture and politics. She works with Students Demand Action’s Georgetown chapter as well as the school’s prison outreach program.

🌐 When asked about the impact CU has had on her work, Minhal cited the “invaluable network of fellow change makers” that she was able to connect with through the CU community.

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Political polarization is top of mind for many Americans. How do we end up with such polarizing candidates on the ballot?
CU Fellow Diya Patel shares how primary elections shape our democracy, and how @mobile.voting can make voting in them more accessible.

🗳️The candidates on your ballot in November are decided on earlier in the year through primary elections, which usually only very few die-hard, polarized voters tend to show up for.

🇺🇸There is a solution to make voting more convenient and break out of this cycle where ultra-partisanship is the norm. That solution is @mobile.voting.

📱By allowing people to vote with their phones, we can make it much easier for the majority of us to vote in every election. Electing less partisan representatives leads to finally making progress on the great majority of issues Americans agree on.

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Everyone’s journey in civic innovation looks different—today, we’re looking at how Wallyson got his start in health, social justice, and technology.

🏫 Wallyson began attending school at age 5.

🎭 When Wallyson was 9, he discovered his passion for the arts—especially performing arts!

⚽️ At 11, Wallyson started playing soccer with local club teams.

🤝 Wallyson’s first introduction to social projects came when he was 13. He started teaching martial arts to kids, tutoring in math, and advocating for environmental causes.

📱 At 15, Wallyson developed apps centering around education and gender equality initiatives.

🩺 Wallyson founded Oncologiando at 18, a project helping cancer patients find information about their conditions.

💻 Now, at 20, Wallyson continues to work on Oncologiando while studying Computer Science at the Federal University of Pernambuco.

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Follow CU Fellow Diya on a day in her life at our Civic Innovation Academy at UCLA!

👟 First, Diya got moving with a quick cardio session at the on-campus gym with some friends!

🩱 After grabbing breakfast, the group headed over to the pool to swim, chat, and enjoy the beautiful southern California weather.

📖 Next, Diya went to the first Civic Innovation Academy session of the day: Defining Impact, hosted by Jiore Craig.

📝 Fellows then split into small groups to work on their group projects, each focused on a different facet of health, tech, and civic innovation.

🏫 That evening, Diya went to the UCLA New Students fair, where she explored the unique civic educational opportunities that UCLA has to offer!

🌟 Finally, the group spoke with Baratunde Thurston about his accomplishments in politics and writing before heading to bed for the night.

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Meet Crystal: a CU Fellow promoting sustainability and environmental justice.

💚 Originally from New Jersey, Crystal has been advocating from a young age, since she first successfully campaigned for Mandarin as a language option at her school.

🌱 Crystal is the founder of LEAP for Climate, a nonprofit working to promote climate educational projects in schools and communities around the world.

🍀 When asked how CU has helped her in civic and personal development, Crystal said “Civics Unplugged has transformed my journey, showing that youth can be disruptors and lead change.”

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Join CU Fellow Minhal on a day in her life at Georgetown University!

💫 Minhal’s first stop of the day was hearing from former Senator Hillary Clinton on her experience in politics and as a woman in leadership.

🌟 Then, Minhal tabled for Students Demand Action Georgetown, a youth-led organization fighting for common-sense gun laws.

✨ After classes and studying, Minhal reflected on her experience with CU’s Georgetown Civic Innovation Academy and how it’s impacted her life and educational goals!

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CU Connections: Mabel & Shloka!
Mabel and Shloka met through Civics Unplugged, and their friendship is still going strong. Swipe to learn more about this power duo and the awesome bonds being formed at CU’s programs!

“Shloka and I met at the Civic Innovation Academy in Georgetown during the summer of 2023. We also reconnected at the Civic Innovation Academy in Austin. Once we found out we had both gotten into Columbia, we decided to room together and have become super close friends ever since! Shloka is studying Political Science with a concentration in international relations, and I am studying Sustainable Development!

Shloka Mehta and I have maintained strong friendships with two other CU alumni. The first is Sydney Chan, who is a freshman at NYU!! We have had dinner with her in NYC multiple times, and we visit each other pretty often. We also have a friend Bhairavi Senthilkumar. She is a freshman at Berkeley, but spent a few days staying at our dorm this year! We all met at the Civic Innovation Academy in Georgetown and have really maintained the friendships since then.”

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