BECKLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Last week, WV Secretary of State Mac Warner traveled to Raleigh County to present five high schools with the Jennings Randolph Award for Civic Engagement. Jennings Randolph Award-winning schools must have a student-led effort to register to vote at least 85% of their eligible senior class. Only 30 schools in the state have qualified to receive this prestigious recognition for the 2023-24 school year.
For the current academic year, Raleigh County leads all 55 counties with the most Jennings Randolph Award-winning schools in the state. Those schools include:
Shady Spring High School
Woodrow Wilson High School
Victory Baptist Academy
Independence High School
Greater Beckley Christian School
Created by the WV Secretary of State’s Office in 1994, the Jennings Randolph Award celebrates our late U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph’s legacy as “the Father of the 26th Amendment”. One of the defining moments in voting rights history, the 26th Amendment was passed in 1971. The Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
Jennings Randolph Award-winning schools also recommend student leaders instrumental to the voter registration effort for the special designation of Honorary Secretary of State (HSOS). HSOS students from each school receive special recognition during the Award ceremony and the opportunity to visit the State Capitol as guests of Secretary Warner during the legislative session.
Raleigh County Clerk ​Scott Van Meter’s Office, legislators and community leaders representing each school were invited to attend the presentations made by Secretary Warner.