The ability to make your voice heard through the ballot box is one of the core features of our American democracy. Many people, however, head to the ballot box without an understanding of what they’re actually voting for. According to Matt Haupert, this contradiction was the inspiration for this project.

The Voices of Justice project was really two separate projects that students worked on simultaneously in the same groups. One project was a political campaign simulation, in which students studied major issues facing our society, formed political parties, created party platforms, and nominated a candidate from within their group who would run for office. The groups campaigned for their candidates, and the project culminated in a political debate in the council chamber at City Hall, followed by an election.

For the second project, students conducted extensive interviews with people from the community who had personal stories about these societal issues and created an illustrated collection of oral histories.

The purpose of doing these two projects at once was so students could learn about these challenging topics both on a macro-level and through personal experiences. Planning this was tricky, as students were juggling two major projects simultaneously. Students worked in groups of four, and roles were fluid, so that at any given time, all four students could be working on one project, or they could divide up and work on tasks for the separate projects depending on where they were falling behind and what deadlines were looming.