Most high schoolers are too young to vote. That's not stopping the students of Compton Early College High School from engaging and assisting their community to participate in the midterm elections.
Girls Build LA is the first youth advocacy group in Compton and has existed at Compton Early College High since its opening in 2015. It's a subdivision of the Los Angeles Promise Fund, an organization that aims to empower students throughout Los Angeles.
It's also the driving force behind the school's push to mobilize Compton's electorate. The group has recruited 33 student volunteers to assist at voting polls across the city Tuesday.
Senior Emily Hernandez, 17, is not old enough to vote. In the meantime, Hernandez is devoting her time and energy to getting others to vote through her work with Girls Build LA.
"This year we're focusing on civic engagement," she said. "We host various events like a voter registration drive and a pre-registration drive because, you know, we're in high school so aside from getting people to vote, we're getting people registered to vote."
Kimberly Ponce is the faculty advisor guiding Tuesday's volunteers as well as Girls Build LA's Compton Early College chapter. According to Ponce, the predominantly black and Latinx student body closely mirrors the racial demographic of Compton, a city with historically low voter turnout.
"Communities like ours are often disenfranchised or often underrepresented," she said. "And this gave us the opportunity to give the girls responsibility for the narrative of their community."
Now 18, senior Keshion White will be voting for the first time on Tuesday. For White, the seeds of civic duty were sown from a young age.
"I was eight when President Obama had first run for office and my mother took me out to vote with her and my grandmother," he said. "She really wanted us to get into the feel of voting and being able to have our voices heard."
When Girls Build LA approached White for an interview on the importance of voting, he was automatically reminded of this formative experience. It fueled his motivation to make his own voice heard.
"It really hit home for me and it allowed me to want to go out and vote and be that change," he said.
In addition to casting his own ballot, White will be manning the polls alongside his underaged classmates on Tuesday.
Still, high school junior Emily Sanchez, said that one of the biggest challenges she and her classmates have faced is voter apathy.
"We've run into some people that are like 'voting doesn't even matter, your vote isn't going to count, there are tons of other people,'" she said. "But if everyone has that mindset then it's not going to matter."
Sanchez said that the best way to combat this attitude is to educate people on the candidates and propositions on the ballot. One way Girls Build LA does this is through their "Did You Know?" initiative, a social media campaign that quizzes students on current political figures and issues.
"Obviously you can't force anybody to register to vote so you've gotta just bring up the facts, the receipts and educate them about the importance of voting and how much their vote matters." she said.
This school year, Compton Early College High School's first senior class will graduate. Ponce, the students' teacher, hopes that their legacy will endure but not to the point where it detracts from current engagement.
"For me it's extremely important to validate the student voice now," she said. "Often times I feel we prepare students for their future but that ultimately minimizes their impact now."
Students like Emily Hernandez, Keishon White and Emily Sanchez do not take their agency to spur change lightly. According to Hernandez, one need not wait to turn 18 to do so.
"I can spread awareness, I can make change, I can march with you guys, there's nothing different," she said. "The only difference is that you vote for change, I just fight for it."