Over two decades ago, Marsha Zlatin Laufer ’64 left her career as a speech language pathologist and found a new calling as a full-time political activist.
Now the Ů alumna and her husband, Henry, are hoping to empower young people at her alma mater to become more engaged and involved in elections—this year and beyond.
Their two $100,000 gifts to Ůsupport voter mobilization efforts and established the Laufer Democracy Internship as part of the (MDI), a nonpartisan interdisciplinary program that combines research, teaching and learning, and civic engagement to create a more just society.
“It’s incumbent upon those of us who work with young people to facilitate their awareness of how important their voice is and how their voice makes a difference,” Marsha Laufer said.
Launched last year with funding from a , MDI incorporates expertise from the College of Education, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Philip Merrill College of Journalism and School of Public Policy to encourage civic participation and tackle threats to democracy.
“We believe our interdisciplinary approach enables us to combine and leverage our expertise, scholarship, practice and partnerships to better address a complex problem: strengthening our democracy,” said Lena Morreale Scott, MDI principal investigator and director of the Civic Education and Engagement Initiative in the College of Education.
One of the Laufers’ gifts funded paid full-time summer internships for 18 Ůundergraduate students, with placements at nonprofits such as , , and others dedicated to voter education and mobilization at colleges and schools. Interns in the program, developed in partnership with the and the , brought their knowledge back to Ůto inform MDI research on effective student voter mobilization strategies.
“Tackling the grand challenges we face as a society requires us to prioritize the cultivation of civic-minded individuals,” said ŮPresident Darryll J. Pines. “The Laufer Democracy Internship is an invaluable opportunity to empower our students to actively engage in shaping our future.”
“When research informs policy, you [find] objective ways to make a difference in people’s lives, to uplift communities and empower them, rather than having partisan beliefs guide and dictate policy in subjective ways,” said Sophia Winner, a senior double majoring in government and politics and economics. Winner interned with Scholars Strategy Network, which works to increase voter participation and build trust in elections.
The Laufers’ second gift established the Laufer Voter Mobilization Program, which includes a first-of-its-kind research program focused on methods to register, educate and mobilize high school voters. The donation also supported the National High School Voting Summit, held at Ůin July, as well as MDI’s work providing professional development and curating instructional materials about voting and elections for PK-12 teachers. In addition, the gift supported MDI’s partnership with —a coalition of students, staff and faculty—to expand the Ůstudent ambassadors program to mobilize student voters on campus.
“This funding can be a real catalyst to completely changing the game for how we understand engaging and informing high school students so that they can feel confident and ready to vote,” said Michael Hanmer, MDI co-principal investigator and professor of government and politics and director of UMD’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement.
While both projects focus on the 2024 elections, Marsha Laufer hopes they spur further growth for MDI.
“This is like dropping a pebble [in a pond],” she said. “It’s giving people tools to learn how to reach out to people, to inspire them, to inform them, to empower them. And then they become ambassadors, and they communicate that excitement to other people.”
This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in .
Top photo by iStock
