When Juan Olivares students signed up for his class in U.S. history class, little did they realize they might be helping to create it. Olivares is a history professor at Richland who decided to encourage some of his students to become participants in history. Therefore, he and one of his classes went to Guadalupe Hall to cast their votes.

“Being a history teacher, you are teaching the long history of how we got this political right so far in the 21st century. It took 200 years of activism, revolts [and] civil wars to get that political right, and what is going on in 2022? A lot of problems affect society, our politics. So what about if I provided an open space and opportunity for my students to make a big difference in this midterm election?” Olivares said.

WE ASKED STUDENTS: Will the recent court rulings and state legislation on abortion affect your vote in the upcoming election?

Debbie Nguemah

“I would look at abortion because I think people need to choose what they want for their life not the government. Because its our own choice and body so why should the government interfere”

Miriam Abashron

“The thing is that I’m a Christian, and they talked about abortion in my class. And it did effect a lot. We plan to not vote for it, but we need to make abortion not legal for crime because you are killing a child”