By Nate Frame, Staff Writer — In Democratic countries, voting is fundamental to the political process; however, the youth vote is down. During the last presidential election in 2012, only 45 percent of young people, ages 18-29, voted, down from 51 percent in 2008.

To help combat this trend, the video production program has created a video designed to get young people engaged in the election.

An organization known as the American Public Education Foundation contacted the video production program to create a video sponsoring their initiative, Youth Vote America. The video, which shows students discussing their political views and voting plans, was first started on Feb. 5 and finished on Feb. 10.

“Even if you aren’t old enough to vote, your voice can still be heard,” video production teacher Joshua Branch said.

Branch teaches the video production career tech as well as the intro class, and manages the many projects the program takes on. He and his students, from sophomores to seniors, have all put in work to make the video as professional as possible.

Seniors Chase Wirth and Ben Kohan spent time editing the video on Adobe Premier and shooting some footage, and Kohan used Adobe After Effects to create some of the graphics.

“I really liked the graphics,” Wirth said. “It seemed a lot more professional.”

The executive director of the organization, Mia Toschi, wanted to have a video to show to each presidential candidate on President’s Day, to educate them on what young voters think about politics and to increase teen engagement in the political process.

“She said she can’t wait to sing praises,” Wirth said.

The most important thing to the students and to Branch is the experience of the project. Branch made sure to give all the credit to his students who worked on the video.

“It was all about the students and their work,” Branch said.

The video has gained some success on its own as well, gaining 7,000 hits on YouTube in less than a week. Between that and it being shown to all of the presidential candidates, the program has produced something they are all very proud of.

“They were eager to be apart of something bigger than themselves,” Branch said.

[Updated Aug. 18, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]