Carnegie Mellon University's Divyansh Kaushik had an idea. The president of the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) and a doctoral student in the Language Technologies Institute wanted to bring students together to increase election participation.

"At GSA, we were already working on political issues and democratic engagement on Capitol Hill, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. It was natural for us to take on that responsibility," Kaushik said.

That work was recognized. Kaushik earned a standout student award from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and CMU received a gold seal for achieving 70-79% voter participation this past presidential election.

Kaushik said the award is a reflection of the efforts made across the university.

"Every student who registered or told a fellow student to please register to vote or please go vote, it's an award for them. It's a recognition of all the great work all of these students put in," Kaushik said.

Read more about the efforts by Kaushik and the GSA on the CMU News website.