March 9th-13th 2026 is Civics Awareness Week at The College Academy. This week is to meant to bring public school students together to learn more about civic participation and especially how to register to vote for the upcoming elections. The next elections will be the mid-terms this November. This week is being promoted by social studies teacher Ms. Sweetser. We spoke with Ms. Sweetser and she told us more about Civics Week.
TCA Heights: Can you tell me about Civic Awareness Week?
Ms. Sweester: So, it is Civics Week, which is a citywide initiative that public schools do to try and increase civic participation and engagement with our students. But the big initiative behind Civics Week is getting as many students registered to vote as possible. So, that’s what we’re doing.
TCA Heights: How do we register?
Ms. Sweester: The process is actually really simple. You just fill out a form. It’s your address, what political party you want to be part of. If not, you can just say no party. The form takes less than five minutes for the students, and we just mail it off. We’ll mail it off for you guys, and you’ll receive some information in the mail.
TCA Heights: How can future voters learn about how to vote?
Ms. Sweester: …there’s a whole website devoted to it, and students can check, or any voter can check the district they’re in, what elections might be coming up. Also, just paying attention to what comes in your mailbox. So, a lot of things come in your mailbox that we just kind of throw away, but a lot of it could be information about elections, like who is the borough running for borough president, or who is your council board member, or how to get involved, or your congressional representative as well for your district. So, I know for me, I get a ton of mail about whatever is happening politically in our neighborhood.
Ms Sweester: Also, I want to say, too, as long as you’re 16, you can actually register to vote. So, you have to be 18 to register to vote, but you can pre-register, which means as soon as you turn 18, they will automatically register you, and you don’t have to do anything. So, 16-year-olds can also go out and get to work.”
For more information and help go to Ms. Sweetser at room 202 or at lunch go to the information table in the hallway near the main office to sign up! (If you missed Civics Awareness week you can click here to register!)
