Photos: From the locker room to the ballot box, Brown Votes boosts student-athlete voter education

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - In many ways, a student-athlete's most valuable asset is time. Between practices, competitions, travel, volunteer service and the academic responsibilities of being a student at Brown, it can be a challenge to find enough hours in the day for much else.

With that in mind, leaders from Brown Votes have teamed up with the Division of Athletics and Recreation to craft a creative way to enable civic engagement for student-athletes: by convening workshops in team locker rooms.

As part of a multifaceted outreach campaign across campus, Brown Votes - a nonpartisan, University-wide initiative committed to cultivating participation in the nation's democratic process - is providing Brown's varsity athletic teams with short, practical presentations on how to prepare to vote in November's elections and answering their election-related questions on the spot.

Student volunteers with Brown Votes have already met with close to a dozen teams, including the women's field hockey team, which sat down with Brown junior Percy Unger, a civic engagement fellow at the Swearer Center and Brown Votes leader, in early October to learn how to register to vote, request an absentee ballot and more.