Iowa Christian School wins statewide civics award

Ahead of the November election, students of voting age at Ankeny Christian School in Ankeny, Iowa are focused on their civic duty. 

The school was recently named a winner of the state’s Carrie Chapman Catt Award, which recognizes Iowa schools with at least 90% of eligible students registered to vote. 

Ankeny Christian received the award after 97% of its students completed voter registrations.  

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate created the award in 2019 as part of a push to encourage high school students statewide to register to vote. He named the award for Iowan Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and founder of the League of Women Voters. 

“A record number of Iowans are registered to vote, and schools across the state have stepped up in a big way the past few years to get students registered,” Pate said in a statement. “I hope these positive trends will continue. It’s vital that we engage students in the electoral process.” 

Alli Hertz, Ankeny Christian history teacher, applied for the award after encouraging her students to register to vote during a class trip to the Iowa Capitol.  

“This was a fun opportunity for us to discuss the importance of registering to vote and seeing the impact they can make on their community,” said Hertz. 

“(Voting) is really important to how our country runs, and as citizens it has a lot of economic implications and things like that,” Garrett Pearson, a senior at Ankeny, told local media. 

Ankeny Christian was one of 20 schools across the state to receive the award for the 2023-2024 school year.