Vice President Kamala Harris implored students at a historically Black college to be the leadership America needs, using her speech at South Carolina State University’s fall convocation to urge young people to vote in the upcoming midterms.

She said ideals that Americans previously thought of as “long-settled” now hang in the balance, from what constitutes truth to whether women will have abortion access, framing it in her speech as an issue of women’s rights.

That’s when Harris appealed to the 15 rows of hundreds of freshmen who sat looking up at her from their seats in the center of the gymnasium. “In moments of great crisis our nation has almost every time turned to our young leaders to help guide us forward,” Harris said.