Burnaby SFU student Danielle DeVries has become an advisor of sorts to friends and family about the upcoming transit vote.
That’s pretty ironic considering the third-year health sciences student knew almost nothing about it just a few months ago.
The difference has been a course she’s taking on SFU’s Burnaby campus called Health and the Built Environment. Aimed at encouraging students to explore the links between health and the way cities are built, the course this semester has focused on the ins and outs of the impending transit plebiscite and getting the youth population to vote in it.
“It’s interesting to be hands-on on an issue that’s so pertinent to everyone in this area,” DeVries told the NOW. “I feel like I’ve suddenly become this adviser to all my friends and family because everyone’s coming to me and going, ‘What about this question? Have you heard anything about this?’”
Aside from one traditional academic paper, the course has consisted of assignments, including blog posts and media projects, aimed at motivating young people to vote.
“They are learning how to make information more accessible and to create messages that mobilize the youth community,” said Meghan Winters of the 34 students in her class. “These are hugely beneficial skills that will help them transition beyond the university.”
DeVries started with her friends and family.
“I’ve got them all registered – or they’re telling that they are because they don’t want to hear about it any more,” she said with a laugh.
She has also had conversations with people outside her sphere and hopes those conversations keep going.
“It is getting out there,” she said, “and I hope through us then it’ll spiral into other people’s contacts as well.”
DeVries supports the proposed $7.5-billion transit plan and the half-per cent regional sales tax that will help pay for it.
“We really need the improvements in the region,” she said. “Short term, yes, it’s going to cost money and we’re not going to see the results right away, but long term, we’re going to have a healthier region.”
But DeVries knows she has her work cut out for her, getting her fellow students to cast a ballot.
One important obstacle, she said, is that many aren’t registered to vote in the plebiscite and don’t know they need to be.
Even after that step, though, she isn’t convinced all her schoolmates will send in their completed ballots.
“I think it’s personal initiative,” she said, “and it’s also that students are busy. They say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. I should register,’ but then we go to work and have a class and write a paper, and it slips your mind.”
