INTERVIEW: Democracy Fellow India Krug
Teens in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania are engaged, empowered, and ready to vote, thanks to India and the Allegheny Youth Vote Coalition.
Since 2023, our Democracy Fellow, India Krug, has been embedded in her hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, working to bring democracy to life for high school students. She’s become a guiding force in the Allegheny County Youth Vote Coalition and with the Coalition has created opportunities for students to lead, engage with elected officials, and understand and exercise their right to register and vote.
We were so inspired we wanted to share her experiences with you through this Q&A.
What drew you to the idea of helping teens become civically engaged in Pittsburgh?
India: I am proud to call Pittsburgh home, but we also have immense challenges, such as redlining, gentrification, aging infrastructure, and environmental pollution across our city. The communities that feel the effects the hardest are also among the most disenfranchised.
High schoolers are set to inherit these problems but are rarely asked about the future they wish to see. I want teens to know that politics isn’t something that happens to them, but rather, something that they have a stake in, can find collectives in and organize for change.
Since beginning this work, I have witnessed time and time again the ways that teens show up and speak up when they have power in political spaces. It gives me so much hope and optimism to light a spark and watch the teens carry it through.
What is the Allegheny County Youth Vote coalition, and what has your role been as an organizer in helping it succeed?
India: The Allegheny County Youth Vote Coalition is a nonpartisan group of local, state, and national nonprofits that focus on youth and democracy. The idea for the coalition began at a coffee shop—all of us work in the civic sphere and care about student voices, so why not join forces?
Our programming aims to meet high schoolers where they’re at and introduce them to direct action, empower them with tools and encourage civic habits. We do this through hands-on education, peer-to-peer voter registration, and creating nonpartisan opportunities for facetime with their own elected officials.
I am the youngest person in the coalition—I started part-time in college—and my role has shifted and changed over the years. I am now part of our core team. I wear a lot of hats, but I’m incredibly lucky in that a lot of what I do is working with our student cohort so that they can co-plan and facilitate coalition events. I would be lying if I said that wasn’t the most fun job.
India Krug, center, with Bre Glover (right, another Democracy Fellow at The Civics Center) and student leader Laila, at the Allegheny Youth Vote Coalition’s Block Party this Spring.
Can you describe the events that you, TCC, and the coalition have all made possible and the impacts?
India: Since 2023, we have organized three “Youth Vote Huddles” at public libraries and museums, with attendance nearly quadrupling since the first. These convenings bring hundreds of students from across the county together, and provide an opportunity for students to interact with candidates and elected officials.
Teens are invited to sit at issue tables, discussing the problems they witness in their communities, their own experiences and ideas for solutions. Our last huddle took place before the state Supreme Court election and included judges and justices who explained their roles, emphasized the importance of participating in judicial elections, and listened to the teens’ reflections and insights. Being in the room means hearing from young people who have experienced gun violence, food insecurity, the hospitalization of loved ones, and biases of all kinds. It also means hearing young people cheer for each other after they speak, and make friends from other schools.
A key part of these huddles comes in the weeks after, in the form of student-led voter registration drives. Attending the huddle helps high schoolers tie voting to the issues they care about and understand why voting is powerful, which reinforces their motivation to lead drives. The coalition has supported students in running more than fifty drives at high schools across Allegheny County.
Other coalition initiatives include a series of nonpartisan mayoral candidate forums at all nine Pittsburgh Public High Schools. Slates of students interviewed the candidates, including the incumbent, focusing on the concerns of young people, such as “third places,” public transportation, future workforce opportunities and housing costs. On one occasion, a student took the mic back, stating, “I’m going to ask that again because you didn’t really give us a straight answer.” Most recently, the coalition held a Youth Vote Block Party in partnership with the county elections office during the early voting period for the May primary. We had a DJ, food trucks, carnival games, and a photo booth. Three hundred students came to celebrate voting, and one hundred students cast their first-ever ballots. Before the end of the school year, students who were not old enough to register and vote during the primary had another opportunity to register through school-based drives.
Can you tell me about a high school student who made the experience come to life?
India: There is a student who has been with us since 2023 and been a part of nearly every event. I watched as she started volunteering for bigger, more intensive roles, becoming more confident in herself as the months went on. Getting to see her growth, from finding the issues that she feels really passionate about, to even the way that she stands while public speaking, has been such a joy and an honor. She graduated this year and actually got a full ride to Yale!
Wow, that is so exciting. Can you tell another story about how the teens have engaged with these events?
India: I remember a student who came to our first huddle. When we asked the group if they were going to register to vote when they were old enough, he shook his head and expressed disillusionment at the electoral process. As organizers, we have to acknowledge this is a completely valid thing for young people to feel.
But we didn’t give up on him. We kept him engaged with our programming, built trust with him and his classmates, and he surprised us by coming to the second huddle. There, he not only registered to vote, he signed up to run a drive at his school. He shared that he’d spent the months following the first huddle discussing voting with some friends, and realized the difference he could make.
Can you describe a challenge and how you helped the students to overcome it?
India: When students run their first drive, I think they’re not always prepared for pushback from their peers. Sometimes it’s not as easy as just asking them to register.
My job as an organizer—one who has canvassed streets where every house was a door slam—is to help students see the value in doing something that feels hard or uncomfortable at first. I can encourage them to get creative about their drive plans, according to the needs of their school and its voting culture, or lack thereof.
What I really love about drives is that they’re teaching students so many things at the same time—leadership and delegation, interpersonal organizing, conversation opening, civic grit—while also having tangible positive impacts on individual classmates and the school community as a whole.
We can’t do this alone. Are there any partners or TCC staff members to whom you want to give a special shout-out?
India: I mean, how long do you have? I have so much gratitude for my coalition colleagues Dr. Regina Holley, Rachel Martin-Golman and Heather Visnesky, who have become dear friends (Heather and I got matching tattoos!).
The wisdom and collaboration of our coalition organizations like PA Youth Vote, GirlGov, Black Political Empowerment Project, VoteRiders and League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh. My supervisor and mentor at The Civics Center, Diego Molina-Castrillón.
Honestly, the entire TCC family. I am so fortunate to know my coworkers, and learn from them, as they are all brilliant in different ways. And obviously all of the incredible students and teachers I have gotten to work with.
What are you most proud of in terms of your own professional development as a Democracy Fellow with The Civics Center?
India: The Civics Center has given me so much. My mom likes to joke that I am up for a lot of disappointment in my career because I’ve been so spoiled by this job. I am thankful for the level of trust that TCC gives their regional organizers—an acknowledgement that we know our communities best.
At the same time, there is such active encouragement to grow in the areas that interest me. This has included many different kinds of writing, from civic research to grant application writing to copyediting to email campaigns.
But the development I think I’m most proud of is becoming a program facilitator and curriculum creator—not only that, but one that actually teaches students how to facilitate, too.
You are a great music lover. Can you tell us about your favorite record store and share a picture of one of the best vinyl albums you’ve recently bought there?
India: Pittsburgh is kind of a vinyl lover’s utopia, so it has to be a tie between Jerry’s Records in Squirrel Hill and Attic Record Store in Millvale. My first time in Pittsburgh was actually visiting Jerry’s with my dad as a child, and I thought that the owner was Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead, until my dad informed me that he had, in fact, passed away in the 90s. But Attic was a postgrad discovery, and now when I have a little money, I like to dig through their jazz crates.
One of my favorite purchases was Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda, a dreamy album I find myself returning to again and again.
Alice and cat!