Rock The Polls
Tri-C Democracy Fellows invite you to join them in promoting nonpartisan civic engagement at the College. Take the Rock The Polls Challenge to get informed, involved and ready to vote!
Listen to our new-to-the-world “Rock The Polls” voting anthem, then:
• Record yourself doing the #TriCVotes Dance Challenge and upload it to our submission form.
-OR-
• Share the song and music video on your social media.
Watch the Music Video
About the Song
How a new voting anthem was born
It started with a conversation between cousins — Tri-C Democracy Fellow Donte and Gospel Artist Corey Bapes. Upon learning of Donte's year-long Democracy Fellowship at Tri-C promoting nonpartisan student civic engagement, Corey offered his help. He wondered if the Democracy Fellows cohort might like to create a song as part of the project. The cohort said yes!, and a months-long collaboration of ideas began this past May.
Members of the Democracy Fellows Core Team in 2022 are four scholars serving as Campus Vote Project Democracy Fellows at Tri-C: Donte, Ade, Samantha and Arman. Government Relations Director and Democracy Fellow Program Mentor Katie Montgomery and Mandel Community Liaison Summer Paris complete the team from the administrative side.
Corey, his manager David Highbaugh, and his team held multiple conversations with the Tri-C Democracy Fellow Core Team seeking input from the students on the hoped-for song feel, topics to be covered and the spirit of what the students would most like to see conveyed.
The result? A new-to-the-world, call-to-action voting anthem called Rock The Polls. The Tri-C team liked it so much it became the theme of this year's college-wide and beyond Promote the Vote efforts.
Included in the Rock The Polls Challenge:
- Rock The Polls music video: Featuring Corey and the Democracy Fellows Core Team, joined by friends, family and other student leaders. Filmed by the Center of Creative Arts student production team, it also features a cameo from Tri-C President Michael Baston!
- Rock The Polls Dance Challenge: Everyone's invited to take the 12-second dance challenge and lift up democracy along the way.
- Learn the dance from our Democracy Fellows.
- Record a video of your group taking the challenge and upload it here.
- Rock The Polls Cocurricular Challenge: A Mandel CLEadership challenge. Open to all Tri-C students. Learn more here.
Everything leads up to The Voting Experience 2022, voter education for students, by students. Learn everything you need to know about voting by watching the Democracy Fellow-led video playlist.
Learn the Dance
Tri-C Democracy Fellow Samantha is here to show you how to perform the Rock The Polls dance!
What Are You Listening To? Challenge
Now that you've listened to Rock The Polls and submitted your video for the Rock The Polls Challenge, do you have the song stuck in your head and on repeat in your playlist? Show us!
You've seen the popular "What are you listening to?" videos on TikTok and Instagram, now show us your take on them by recording your own version and telling the world that you're listening to Rock The Polls.
Have someone ask, "What are you listening to?", record it and upload it here.
Show Your Pride
Once you've taken the Rock The Polls Dance Challenge and submitted your video, don't forget to download our I Rocked The Polls badge! Share it on social media, add it to your email signature and more!