Four Providence Day upper school students worked with The Charlotte Ledger to produce a voter’s guide to help people living in and around Charlotte be better informed about the candidates and issues in the upcoming elections. Morgan Boonshaft (‘24), Meha Khanna (‘25), Anish Vedantham (‘25), and Zach Kahn (‘26) learned of the opportunity from Dr. Jennifer Bratyanski, who teaches Advanced Placement Government. Providence Day (PD) parent Sucharitha Kodali, coordinated the interns for The Charlotte Ledger.
Vedantham, a current PD senior, said, “ As soon as I saw the description of the role, I was hooked. It dealt with voting rights and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operations and social media, two of my biggest passions.“ Junior Zach Kahn was initially attracted to the project because of his passion for journalism: Since ninth grade, I have always wanted to be a sports journalist. Going into the project, I knew little about politics; but, I was interested in learning more. Some sports journalists who I reached out to for advice emphasized learning about various other topics outside of sports to strengthen my knowledge and skills.“
Over an eight-week period, the students gathered information about more than 200 candidates in every down-ballot election in 10 counties. Vedantham says this involved “scouring candidate websites, Ballotpedia, and other sources to find information on their previous experience, family life, and most importantly, policies.” They also conducted surveys of each candidate, inviting them to answer questions about themselves. These surveys helped the students fact-check the data they had gathered and gave each candidate the opportunity to speak to voters in their own voice.
The voter guides ended up on the The Charlotte Ledger’s Instagram page. But, Boonshaft, Khanna, Vedantham, and Kahn created other digital content, too including posts that showcased Charlotteans running for state office, encouraged readers to visit The Ledger’s Election Hub, and provided information about different political races like the ones for Attorney General and Governor. They also made several videos about the importance of voting in down-ballot elections and others that highlight different races.
Khanna, a PD senior, says that she enjoyed working on the project but admits that finding information about some of the candidates and issues was often challenging: “We had to really dig deep to find the information we needed. We overcame this by getting creative with our research — finding candidates’ LinkedIn pages or schooling information or even checking their workplace information to learn more about them. I think this widened my view on local politics.”
Khanna also learned a lot about the counties around Charlotte: “There is more to North Carolina than just Mecklenburg County, and in each other county, there are countless individuals hoping to represent their people.” She adds, “Every specific area has its own needs.”
Vedantham and Khanna enjoyed working on the project, and both believe in the value of educating voters. Vedantham says, “The experience was definitely challenging at times, but it was also incredibly worthwhile.” Khanna sums up her internship experience this way: “There is more to democracy than just voting — it is about voting to make sure your beliefs are in office, and this project is a step in the right direction. Involving myself with an organization like the Ledger showed me how to use my knowledge to help strengthen local politics by spreading the word about voter education.”
Kahn says the internship helped him develop a deeper passion for writing: “The biggest thing I gained from the experience was a change in the reason I have always loved journalism. Before the internship, all I cared about was writing about sports. That was all journalism meant to me. Now, I look at it in an entirely different way: journalism is about educating yourself and others about problems that exist and solutions that we can implement. It is about giving a voice to those who do not always have a voice. It is about explaining why andsolving problems. It is not just for pure entertainment. It is so much more than that.”