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MARQUETTE -- Various Northern Michigan University and local Marquette groups got together to hold a Rock the Vote event at the Northern Center on campus on Wednesday.
Rock the Vote was intended to help college students become informed and registered voters. Booths were staffed by Rise, the League of Women Voters and the Michigan Student Power Alliance.
Rise is a national student-led organization that ensures college students stay educated about elections and races from the local level to national. It also advocates for free college and provide students with many resources about financial aid.
"I was here in the very beginning planning phases and just seeing it all come together after working so hard with all of these amazing groups is just wonderful. It's like a dream come true," said Alex Lucas, district manager of Rise at NMU.
The League of Women Voters of Marquette County was also present with its own booth and information. The LWV is a nonpartisan political organization that works to empower, support and inform voters.
"Our mission is to provide voters with the resources, the information, the leads, context, whatever so that they can make up their own minds because we trust voters," LWV spokesperson Priscilla Burnham said.
The Michigan Student Power Alliance is a group of student organizers from around the state who provide resources about the wider leftist movement in America.
"We're a progressive statewide network of progressive student organizers working to connect student struggles across campuses, issues and identities," MSPA representative Emily Jones said, "doing so to build a collective youth movement that will enact change."
It runs one of the only paid fellowship programs in Michigan.
"We pay student organizers to do the work they're already doing, to give them support, pay resources and other resources," Jones said.
The event also featured a concert with performances by Jalen Sims, Conway and Taylor Bennett.
The whole event was planned primarily by Social Justice For Us, a local Marquette nonprofit run by Freddy Sims on a mission to uplift the voices of marginalized people in Marquette. Its motto is, "Do better. Demand better."