Growing up in Leadville, Fabian Jimenez said many of his peers suffered from “small town syndrome,” feeling trapped and limited by their 2,000-something population city. But that was never an issue for Jimenez.

Before he even graduated high school, Jimenez made waves in his community and the state at large, leading a voter registration drive that resulted in an impressive rise in youth voters in the 2020 election. Now, 18-year-old Jimenez has been honored with the Emerging Community Leader Medal by Gov. Jared Polis as part of the 2021 Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medals.

“It shows the power of young people,” Jimenez said of the award. “Young people, like myself, have the power to make a difference for their futures and their communities. I hope that by getting this award, more young people are incentivized to keep doing more and more.”

Jimenez attended Lake County High School from 2017 to 2021, during which time he earned a reputation as a leader among students.

Former school Principal Ben Cairns said Jimenez’s activism began even before the voter registration drive. Cairns said between eighth and 10th grades, Jimenez organized student walkouts over school shootings and led efforts to protect his fellow students whose DACA immigration statuses were in question.

“He helped change our school culture,” Cairns said. “His legacy here at Lake County will hopefully be a better high school because of what he showed kids you can do going through our system.”

Cairns said the voter registration drive developed from Jimenez’s ability to recognize the concerns and challenges that were facing his peers and connect them to bigger-picture issues. Cairns said Jimenez, a star athlete as well as a top student, connected with all of his classmates and made being smart and caring about issues “cool.”

Jimenez led the voter registration drive in 2019 and 2020 as vice president and then president of his school’s student government. During the drives, he presented to classes about the importance of voting and sent students video explanations of the voting process, voter registration links and information about ballot issues. This contributed to significant growth in Lake County’s youth voter turnout.

During the 2020 election, 306 people between the ages of 18 and 24 voted in Lake County, according to data from the county clerk and recorder’s office. That is a more than 33% increase in youth voter turnout from the 2016 election and possibly the highest youth voter turnout in the county’s history, Clerk Patty Berger said. Of the 306 young voters, 253 or 83% were first-time voters.

“I know that was our goal, but I can’t believe we actually accomplished it. … It was just an incredible feeling,” Jimenez said. “The biggest thing that I learned from the voter registration drive was to not be afraid to reach out, even if you think you’re not going to make a difference. It showed me that there is no dream that is too big. If you have a goal and if you want to make a difference, you should make every effort to make it happen.”

Though the student government began the drive in 2018 when Jimenez was a sophomore, it was previously focused on getting parents to vote by giving them information at parent teacher conferences. When Jimenez took over, he changed the focus to students, saying the country benefits from young people bringing fresh perspectives to politics.

Math teacher Karl Remsen said, before the voter registration drives, most students at Lake County High School weren’t interested in voting. Remsen said Jimenez is extraordinary because he not only realized he felt differently, but that he had the power to help influence his classmates to feel differently as well.

“He’s creating a legacy of lifelong voters who will impact our state for years and years, just by participating in the political process,” Remsen said. “A student like Fabian, many teachers would say, is why we keep doing what we’re doing. … I can see that he’s going to go on to do great things.”

Jimenez graduated high school in May and is now attending Colorado School of Mines as a Boettcher scholar, where he studies civil engineering. After college, he said he plans to pursue a career improving the environmental impacts of construction and infrastructure, connecting engineering with his passion for nature.

Right now, Jimenez said he is focused on making the School of Mines more inclusive for students of color like himself as a Latino student. He has also set his sights on improving Denver’s infrastructure design to bring communities closer together, addressing historic segregation of low-income and communities of color from richer, white neighborhoods by interstates and freeways.

However, Jimenez’s heart is still with Leadville, saying he hopes to inspire other residents of his small hometown to dream big. 

“It doesn’t matter where you come from as long as you have a dream and you work towards it,” Jimenez said. “Getting this award shows me, and I hope it shows other people in my community, that if you work hard enough and your goals are big enough, there’s a lot of things you can accomplish.”

The Denver Gazette will publish profiles of all eight medal recipients in advance of Wednesday’s award ceremony.

The awards are the work of CiviCO, a nonprofit that identifies and provides training on current affairs to civic-minded leaders with the aim of cultivating long-term guidance for the advancement of the state.

Deemed by organizers as “one of the highest honors bestowed upon citizens and organizations of Colorado for their significant contributions to communities across the state,” the medals were first presented in 2015, under then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, but soon attracted the support of former governors, Democrat and Republican.

Recipients embody Colorado values of service, integrity, teamwork, respect and innovation, CiviCO said.

See also:

? COVID hero: Nick Muerdter links vaccine needs to people

? Tim Foster honored for leadership, public service

? Denver power couple Wilma, Wellington Webb honored with Governor’s Citizenship Medal