Group engages students after election

Cyrus Nuval

Staff Writer

VCU students mixed carnival games and political trivia as a way to keep young adults involved in politics after the election.

A group of design students called Young Richmond hosted a Political Carnival Nov. 30 to engage and inform students locally after the election season. The carnival was held at the 1509 Gallery from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with a variety of trivia and games for participants.

“We wanted to create an event to keep the political enthusiasm during the election going postelection. The enthusiasm usually fizzles out after the election,” Young Richmond member Isabel Rich said. According to Rich, a key organizer of the event, Young Richmond is part of a graphic design service-learning class called Design Rebels, taught by Noah Scalin and Bizhan Khodabandeh.

“It was just so interesting to see the hype during the campaign and we hope to see that again,” Rich said. Their slogans for the event were “You voted, so what?” and “I Stayed Involved,” emphasizing the need for students to continue their political involvement beyond the election.

The Political Carnival had carnival games like balloon and darts, pond fishing, bottles and rings and pin the U.S. Flag on a picture of Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones. Each game had political themes and trivia questions on local and national politics. Participants earned tickets for prizes if they won games or answered trivia questions correctly and they could win food or posters designed by Young Richmond members.

“What the Design Rebels class and Noah Scalin is basically teaching us is to positively influence the community through design work,” said Rich. “In the class we are given an opportunity to design in places or make designs that reflect our morals or express what we believe in through our designs.

According to Rich, she proposed the idea of focusing on politics to the rest of the Young Richmond group as their project for the second half of the semester.

“I got together with the others and from there it evolved into something a lot bigger than I expected,” she said.

VCU Young Democrats also attended the carnival and had a table at the gallery to answer questions and talk to students. College Republicans of VCU were not able to participate because of a car accident on the way to the gallery.