Classroom toolkit selected as Mesa Community College’s innovation of the year

A classroom toolkit designed by Alejandra Maya, civic engagement program coordinator at Mesa Community College, was recently selected to represent MCC at the Maricopa County Community College District competition, where one innovation is chosen to move forward to the national 2025-26 Innovation of the Year Awards competition hosted by The League for Innovation in the Community College.

Created in collaboration with the Ask Every Student 2025-26 Codesigner Campuses and titled the “Mindfully Informed Civic Engagement Classroom Toolkit,” Maya’s project seeks to strengthen civic learning by combining a staff-facing handbook with a student-centered presentation. The handbook provides colleges and universities with a complete system to oversee, train and mentor student presenters who deliver nonpartisan civic presentations in the classroom, it states in a release.

Twenty classrooms within MCC have implemented the toolkit, and Maya anticipates many more colleges and universities will adopt the toolkit during the national and primary election cycles.

“Many students who attend colleges and universities throughout the country are voting for the first time and feel overwhelmed by the process,” Maya explained. “What comes after you register to vote? How do you determine who you should vote for? I wanted to create clear, practical resources that make civic engagement feel approachable instead of intimidating.”

Maya served as the first student trustee for the MCCCD Governing Board and launched MCC Votes, a peer-to-peer classroom presentation program that equips students with tools to become informed, engaged voters while addressing political fatigue and civic anxiety.

“I am deeply thankful to the Mesa Community College Center for Community & Civic Engagement, my colleagues and the students who continue to inspire this work every day,” Maya said in the release. “This recognition reinforces my belief that civic engagement is strongest when it is human-centered, student-led and intentionally supported.”

Go to www.maricopa.edu.