Virginia21, a group that promotes political involvement among young people, coordinated the sending of 4,569 letters within 100 hours from students to their hometown General Assembly representatives, supporting the Senate budget for higher education.
The program, dubbed "e-Storm the Statehouse," organized the students to send the letters supporting the allocation of $200 million to higher education and $15 million to financial aid.
Virginia21 Executive Director Jesse Ferguson said the program started out as an outgrowth of higher education in conjunction with student leaders from all colleges throughout the commonwealth.
"One of our largest principles is that in order to be effective the legislation needs to hear from their constituents," Ferguson said. "The campaign was more successful than we ever thought it would be. Legislators heard from one person every 81 seconds, that out to be the most convincing evidence that their voters care about higher education."
--Compiled by Amir Khoddami
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