HWS News
29 October 2026 • Service Howe ’26 Named to ALL IN Honor Roll
Kelly Howe ’26 is recognized for leadership efforts to increase civic engagement among her peers.
Kelly Howe ’26 has been selected for the 2026 ALL IN Campus Democracy Honor Roll. The award recognizes her commitment to advancing student voter turnout through nonpartisan initiatives.
Other honor roll honorees include students from Cornell, Tufts and Yale universities.
At HWS, Howe served as the co-civic leader of HWS Votes. Howe’s work, alongside Rafael Aguilar ’25 and Jasmine Goncalves Piment ’27, led HWS to be voted among the most engaged campuses by ALL IN in 2024.
Through nonpartisan initiatives, Howe and Aquilar hosted 71 events over two months in 2024, gaining 415 pledges and 102 new registered voters. They also had 4,728 unique points of contact with faculty, students and staff.
“Kelly’s strategic thinking, refined execution and commitment to all having access to exercise their right to vote was an inspiring achievement to watch,” says Director of Student Success and Retention Peter Budmen ’15, MAT ’16. “She truly left no stone unturned.”
During the 2025-2026 academic year, HWS Votes hosted a screening of the State of the Union address, a New York City Mayoral Election Watch Party, various Voter Education Week events and Voter Education bingo.
During the election cycle, they hosted voter registration drives, helped students identify their polling locations and distributed resources on key issues. She also led a peer-to-peer voter engagement drive, sending personalized messages to students with key voting information in their home states.
“Kelly leveraged best practices for peer-to-peer voter engagement strategies and thought creatively about ways to incorporate voter engagement work into the academic program. Her ability to create welcoming, informative and community-building experiences exemplifies what it means to be a civically engaged scholar and campus leader,” Budmen says.
On campus, Howe majored in international relations. She was captain on the William Smith hockey team, and was nominated for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, while also being a two-time NEHC All-Academic Pick. She was a member of the Laurel Honor Society, Hai Timai Honor Society, as well as Sigma Iota Rho, the International Relations Honors Society. She served in a variety of leadership positions, including Teaching Fellows, Writing Colleagues and Senior Admissions Intern. She also participated in summer research with Professor of International Relations Stacey Philbrick-Yadav.
Howe currently serves as Assistant Director of Admissions at Wheaton College.
At top: Kelly Howe '26 gives a presentation for HWS Votes. She is joined by Director of Student Success and Retention Peter Budmen ’15, MAT ’16.
