ENC SAAC Members Spearheading NECC ‘Spark The Change’ Campaign to Encourage Student Voting

On Wednesday, October 21, the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) announced a student-athlete led initiative aimed at encouraging the conference's students to use their voice this election season by voting. The 'Spark The Change' campaign will run through Election Day, November 3.

"The opportunity to vote is important to me personally and I was thrilled when our student-athletes chose to make voter participation a focal point this fall. I'm thankful that the NECC wanted to support and collaborate with us on this initiative and helped bring this to the campuses of the other conference institutions," stated Toni Kabilian, ENC's Associate Director of Athletics and SAAC Advisor.

"Spark the Change is really an effort directed at our generation to start something new," said Ozzy Traill III (Valley Stream, N.Y.), a senior on the ENC men's basketball team and a member of the ENC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Having recently began an internship with the New England Collegiate Conference, Traill is at the forefront of this entirely student-run movement. "We are the generation that everyone considers to be "lazy" and it is time for us to realize what's going on in our country. It's also time to take initiative so let's "Spark the Change" together!" commented the senior Sports Management major.

"What has impressed me the most, aside from obviously the importance of the subject being tackled, is that this is something being entirely driven by our student-athletes," said NECC Commissioner Jacob VanRyn. "Some of our student leaders, including Ozzy, reached out to me and said we want to do something, we need to do something to help spread the word about the importance of voting. To see our conference's student-athletes recognize the importance of using their voice and to speak up and be herd by voting, it's extremely rewarding and I couldn't be more proud of their efforts."