Resources for Alumni | What's New

As temperatures neared ninety degrees for the first time in weeks, eight identically-clad Ward Fellows found themselves on the street corners of Brigham Circle, yelling at pedestrians, motorists, and bicyclists. All for a good cause, of course.

On August 25, the Ward Fellows volunteered for Boston Votes 2000, a program through the Office of New Bostonians, designed to encourage Boston residents -- especially minorities and immigrants -- to register to vote and show up at the polls. By targeting minorities and immigrants, the Office of New Bostonians hopes to give a voice to a largely under-represented population in both local and national government.

As Rev. Cheng Imm Tan, Director of the Office of New Bostonians, told Adrian Walker, a columnist for The Boston Globe in a column dated August 19, 2000, “We need to empower our communities, so our politics will look more like our demographics.”

So we stood on the four corners surrounding the Brigham Circle T stop on the Green Line, waving brightly colored posters asking people to “Register and Vote!” in eight different languages. Armed with the signs, clipboards holding voter registration forms in both Spanish and English, and plenty of black pens, the Ward Fellows registered well over sixty people to vote in upcoming elections.

We were met with overwhelming support throughout the day. Many pedestrians stopped to ask us about the voter registration drive, why we thought it was important, and what they could do to help. Many of us found ourselves engaged in lengthy explanations of the upcoming presidential election, as well as important issues concerning Boston residents. It was truly an enlightening experience. While most of us worked in the offices of elected officials throughout the summer and many dealt with constituent phone calls and mail, very few of us ever ventured beyond the office to connect with residents and citizens and the issues that concern them.

With the motto of the Fellowship, “One must act as if one makes a difference,” fresh in our minds, it seems very fitting that the Fellows participated in this voter registration drive.    

When asked by Gaston K. Poufong, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Office of New Bostonians, why we thought it was important for citizens to register and take an active part in their government, many of the Fellows spoke of the overwhelming need to have politics better represent the people that it is designed to stand for, especially youth and minorities.

Clad in our white, yellow, and blue “New Bostonians in Action” T-shirts, jeans, and sunglasses, the Ward Fellows looked slightly less distinguished than usual. However, by encouraging passersby in Brigham Circle to register to vote and take an active part in the government that stands for them, we truly did make a difference.