Lake Michigan College has garnered two national awards for its efforts to engage students in the 2024 election.
LMC political science instructor Tiffany Bohm tells us the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge has named student Renato Recillas to its 2025 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for his efforts to help educate fellow students on voting rights and procedures.
“He worked in the residence hall and set up question and answer sessions for the students who live in our residence hall, Beckwith Hall,” Bohm said. “He did several of those where students could drop in and they could look at a sample ballot, and then they could ask questions.”
Bohm says Recillas, of Fennville, worked very hard on campus leading up to the election.
Additionally, LMC has been designated a 2025 Voter Friendly Campus by Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project. Bohm says she believes they’ve received the designation each year since 2016. It proves the college works to engage students and educate them on the importance of elections.
“I think it’s important that young people know their rights and they are engaged early on into how to vote. It’s a lifelong civic duty. Some choose not to vote and that’s their personal preference. We educate on the importance of exercising your civic duty.”
LMC earned the designation after an evaluation of its written plan to register, educate, and mobilize student voters in 2024, its campus-wide voter engagement implementation, and a final analysis of those efforts, which were all spearheaded by Dr. Bohm.
LMC is one of only 47 community colleges to be named a Voter Friendly Campus.
