BRYN ATHYN, Pa. -- The Bryn Athyn College women's basketball team participated in a Student-Athlete Voter Engagement Alliance (SAVE) education virtual meeting last week.
SAVE has been holding sessions with college teams and coaches across the country since June. SAVE's primary focus is to provide non-partisan conversation and education on the process of voting, with the goal of empowering young athletes. Bryn Athyn's session was led by Towson University associate head women's basketball coach Zach Kancher.
"We are grateful to be included in SAVE's programming this fall," said Bryn Athyn head coach Travis Ponton. "We have a group of young women who are hungry to have a voice and have information because they want to be engaged in the community. In a major election year, this meeting was timely and really educational on the history and process of civic engagement."
Among the topics discussed, students learned about the history of voting in the U.S., key terminology, the importance of voting, how to navigate a full ballot, and where to find more information about voting, legislation up for a vote, and voter registration.
"I like how they were very eager to put us on to information that we may or may not know of because there's a lot of people out there that care about our rights," said junior Alisha McKnight. "I think it is very important because I feel like with everything going on in the world today, we should know what we can and cannot do to make a change. I think the world needs the younger generation to speak up, so voting is the step to make that change."
"Every one of the student athletes in our program is about to participate in their first Presidential election," said Ponton. "For them to be able to understand the power that lies in their right to vote, and how they can make use of that, that's vital. Our program focuses on developing people first, so I'm glad our student-athletes had this opportunity."