Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1278320
credit: Annie Bolin/Unsplash Downey is an adviser with the Ronald Reagan Citizens Scholar Institute in Simi Valley. Civics in the Time of COVID-19 J O H N D O W N E Y won't let a pandemic stop his work as a civics educator and adviser at the Ronald Reagan Citizens Scholar Institute. The institute, a col- laboration between Royal High School and the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Presidential Library, continues to offer students virtual opportunities to come together to discuss current events and relevant topics in politics and government. "We feel strongly that our Citizens Scholar Institute needs to operate as close to normal as possible, for the sake of giving students the experience of community," Downey says. To that end, he and other educators kept a brown bag lunch speaker series alive during the spring. " The highlight was a student speaker who lost her grandfather to COVID-19 and was able to speak about his very interesting life, her feelings about having to be isolated because of the positive tests of people in her immediate family, and the need for her student peers to be responsible to each other and take the pandemic seriously." The series will start up again in the fall — virtually. "Our first speaker will be the newly elected Associated Student Body president giving a 'State of the ASB' address," Downey says. "Invitations to speak will go out to all of the local office seekers." " It always surprises me how heated the conversation becomes when we talk about why we haven't had a woman president." — Liz Tanner, Campbell High School Teachers Association Support for Young Voters Eligible 16- and 17-year-olds may now preregister to vote in California by visiting registertovote.ca.gov. Those who preregister will have their registration become active once they turn 18, the voting age. Proposition 18 on the November ballot (ACA 4) would authorize an eligible California youth who is 17 and will be at least 18 at the time of the next general election to vote in any primary or special election that occurs before the next general election. 53 A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0