Youth Voice at the National Conventions

America’s Next Generation of Leaders
Youth Leadership Survey Concept paper excerpt
Prepared by the Rocky Mountain Leadership Institute

Overview
In advance of the 2008 national political conventions in Denver and Minneapolis, a national poll of issues and concerns to America’s youth will be conducted via the internet in more than 2,700 high schools across the country. The results of the survey will form the basis of a Youth Platform to be presented to the delegates of the DNC and RNC conventions. The polling process will serve to engage America’s youth in a substantive civic dialogue and provide an opportunity for the country to listen to what is important to its future leaders.

Our students will help design the poll, conduct the survey and join a group of youth in the Rocky Mountain region to draft a youth platform based on the survey results.

Global Climate Change

On Thursday morning, May 17th, the entire school community and stakeholders from the local town convened a Global Climate Change Summit. A thread that ran through the summit was the showing of excerpts from the film, Nobelity.

The high point of the day was a presentation by an 8th grade student inspired by Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. This 8th grader at the age of 14 was the youngest of one thousand trained directly by Al Gore to spread the essential learnings from Inconvenient Truth. The student was more polished and had better materials than most adult presenters. The arguments were compelling. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to list what I learned from the summit. I'll make that the topic for a future entry. In the meantime, check out the links and think about how this summit was an example of civic action.

Introduction

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. "
Margaret Mead

Today I worked with one of my high school students seeding and fertilizing the only cemetery in town, planting black forest trees for an older couple, and cleaning out a woman's attic so she could hold a garage sale. At $10 an hour we were earning money for our school's scholarship fund. We rent ourselves out to the community as a way to raise funds for our graduates' higher education.

I was happy to be working for a good cause. I felt more connected to the community. I know I'll run into these folks again in the coffee shop or library - what better way to bring us all closer. There was history to learn. For example, Estes Valley Memorial Gardens was created by a local effort to bury folks who felt at home in Estes Park rather than having to go to cemeteries on the front range.

In the end, the thing I found most remarkable in terms of civic action was that my company supported this as my day of work. Am I correct in thinking this is an untapped source of civic action? Could more businesses support civic action?