The 2026 class of Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness features young changemakers from across the country tackling real-world challenges in their communities. These young people from 37 states and D.C. will receive a full year of wraparound support from C&S, including funding, coaching, and access to a national peer network.
Explore the 2026 projects below.
Access the Ballot
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Team Lead: Leila Golzari-Hunt
Team Members: Claire Chen, Annie Goldrick, and Ava Golzari-Hunt
“Access the Ballot” aims to increase the number of young people with disabilities registered to vote and civically engaged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by addressing barriers that limit their access to the democratic process. The project uses a multifaceted approach by organizing accessible registration drives, building a website regarding disability rights and voting options, and training young people with disabilities to serve as peer ambassadors for civic engagement.
Advocates for Kentucky Literacy
Edmonton, Kentucky
Team Lead: Leah Kerr
Team Members: Collin Shive and Brynlee Hutton
Advocates for Kentucky Literacy plans to raise awareness and make a difference for people of all ages. We plan to host book drives, set up at local events, post frequently on social media platforms, reach out to public officials, offer tutoring sessions, and speak about this issue in public capacities.
AR Snapshots
Bentonville, Arkansas
Team Lead: Ananya Palaki
Team Members: Suvrajyoti Panda, Chelsa Sooraj, Neha Gonuguntla, and Oorvi Chandra
AR Snapshots addresses the lack of accessible, trustworthy local journalism and the growing prevalence of misinformation among students, which leaves many young people uninformed about decisions that directly affect their schools and communities. AR Snapshots trains student journalists to create clear, unbiased summaries of local government decisions and community opportunities through a student-run news platform.
Baltimore Forward
Baltimore, Maryland
Team Lead: Abiola Arowolo
Team Members: Zion Parrah, Cortly Witherspoon, Goodness Alafe, and Amanda Duru
Baltimore Forward addresses youth civic disengagement and limited access to trusted, youth-led voting information in Baltimore because these barriers weaken young people’s voices in decisions that affect their communities. The project uses youth participatory action research, outreach, community media, and advocacy to share voting information, connect with Baltimore organizations, and encourage youth civic participation.
Breaking the Silence: A Youth-Led Initiative to Reduce Stigma and Build Civic Voice Around Opioid Recovery in West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Team Lead: Pavan Subramani
Team Members: Andrea Rader, Harlyn Nelson, and Grayson Martucci
Our project addresses the substance abuse crisis, which is currently damaging communities in West Virginia by disrupting families and increasing violence. The project raises awareness of substance abuse, educates youth about it, and creates a resource hub for information about substance abuse.
BridGEN
New York, New York
Team Lead: Lucia Xiao
Team Members: Emily Shen, Iris Mou, Jocelyn Sun, and Anabelle Wang
BridGEN is a youth-led initiative tackling New York City’s dual crisis of senior social isolation and screen‑saturated youth disengagement, intensified by a widening digital equity gap that leaves older adults marginalized in a tech‑driven world. BridGEN addresses this challenge by transforming digital literacy into a reciprocal, youth-led, intergenerational experience in which seniors and students learn from one another while co-creating community-centered technology solutions that strengthen social connection, digital confidence, and community resilience.
Bridging the Information Gap (BIG)
Westminster, California
Team Lead: Maya Do
Team Members: Tracy Huynh, Karen Tran, Sophia Tran, and Kyle Vu
BIG addresses the extremity of digital fraud, particularly among the elderly Vietnamese American population, who are more susceptible to online scams, and seeks to combat intergenerational language, cultural, and age barriers. BIG empowers seniors to combat the disinformation crisis by providing them with the necessary online tools and knowledge through face-to-face digital literacy training and creating a safe, multilingual online community.
BUDGET Teens
Dearborn Heights, Michigan
Team Lead: Jana Ghandour
Team Members: Shreena Patel, Dawit Bekele, and David Fernandez
Our society faces a negative feedback loop between two events: a lack of understanding of the government spending and budgeting process, and the neglect of funding for recreational spaces in cities such as Detroit. Budget Teens aims to target recreational areas most affected by poor funding by providing immediate rehabilitation support and offering educational opportunities through a mobile app with learning materials.
Charm ‘n Warmth
Santa Ana, Westminster, California
Team Lead: Nhi Nguyen
Team Members: My Truong and Khaly Nguyen
Many hospitalized children and children in shelters experience isolation and emotional stress, and Charm ‘n Warmth addresses this by providing thoughtful handmade gifts and activities that offer comfort, connection, and moments of joy. Charm ‘n Warmth creates and distributes personalized care packages, including handmade cards, crafts, and activity kits, to bring encouragement and emotional support to children facing difficult circumstances.
Civic Roots
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Team Lead: Jooahn Sohn
Team Members: Sandhya Veerabahu, Jill Adair, Nandika Tiwari, and Huda Noorzai
Many young people never receive meaningful civic education, leaving them without a strong understanding of their constitutional rights, government, and how they can make a difference in their communities. Civic Roots provides free, nonpartisan workshops, lesson plans, case studies, and educational resources for schools and libraries that make civics engaging, practical, and accessible to elementary and middle school students.
Clean Choices Together
Tucker, Georgia
Team Lead: Sophia Yuan
Team Members: Gabby Aston, Ganavi Vishwanath, and Hope Liu
Small businesses collectively generate significant packaging waste, yet they are often overlooked in sustainability efforts despite their potential to drive large-scale environmental impact. Clean Choices Together develops AI-powered tools, educational resources, and storytelling to make switching to sustainable packaging simple, affordable, and data-driven.
ClearVote
Grambling, Louisiana
Team Lead: Orator Murambiwa
Team Members: Vensen Sibanda, Tadiwanashe Dumba, and Tatenda Kasirori
The rapid spread of AI-generated deepfakes can make it harder for people to identify trustworthy information, affecting informed civic participation, public trust, and digital well-being. ClearVote develops an AI-powered system that detects and flags potential deepfakes, helping people evaluate digital content with greater confidence before sharing or acting on it.
Cognify Bridge
Plymouth, Minnesota
Team Lead: Sanjana Mantha
Team Members: Sid Mantha, Sahana Mantha, Sruthi Mantha, and Dhyey Patel
Cognify Bridge addresses the lack of digital accessibility for individuals with cognitive disabilities and neurodegenerative conditions, ensuring they can independently access essential online information, services, and resources. We improve accessibility by providing free website audits, practical recommendations aligned with ADA and WCAG guidelines, volunteer-led outreach, and fundraising to support neurodegenerative disease research.
Common Ground
Lincoln, Nebraska
Team Lead:
Team Members: Aya Mursal, Nsreen Ahmed, Shayma Ali, and Mohamed Sulieman
Common Ground aims to solve divisions between immigrant communities and long-time residents of Lincoln, Nebraska, which matters because this issue has stunted change and hindered progress. The project addresses this challenge by creating spaces for difficult conversations.
Conflict Resolution: Civically Combating Antisemitism & Islamophobia
Gainesville, Florida
Team Lead: Mikhail Mikhaylov
Team Members: Leyan Albustami, Aamina Al-Yahia, Connor Effrain, and Bryce Maloney
Conflict Resolution: Civically Combating Antisemitism & Islamophobia addresses the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses, where misinformation and polarization can undermine students’ sense of belonging, weaken constructive dialogue, and erode the inclusive learning environments that higher education is meant to foster. The Conflict Resolution team is creating a free virtual course that combines scholarly expertise with interactive workshops to equip students with the knowledge, critical thinking, and conflict-resolution skills needed to counter antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Corals to Committees
O’ahu, Hawaii
Team Lead: Jenavive Meays
Team Members: Charla Teves and Lauren Buck
Across the Hawaiian islands, geographic isolation from the State Capitol and complex scientific language create literacy barriers that isolate marginalized communities from environmental advocacy; with ʻāina degrading as both a teacher and resource, policies will fail to protect coastal ecosystems and local livelihoods without the informed science-civic participation of the Kamaʻāina who rely on them. By translating “field notes into floor votes,” Corals to Committees bridges inter-island divides by combining hands-on ecological field monitoring with accessible podcast discussions to equip marginalized youth with the scientific literacy needed to advocate for science-driven policy directly to legislators from anywhere.
Culturally Responsive Food and Nutrition Initiative
Toms River, New Jersey
Team Lead: Jasmine Guarin
Team Members: Mateo Guarin, Anne Nyangaga, Nixon Nyangaga, and Tania Montoya
The Culturally Responsive Food and Nutrition Initiative addresses food insecurity, limited access to culturally relevant nutrition education, and barriers to bilingual health resources, which can impact individuals’ and families’ ability to access nutritious foods, make informed health decisions, and support long-term well-being. The project addresses these challenges by providing culturally responsive nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, food pantry navigation, and individualized nutrition counseling to build nutrition skills, increase confidence in food preparation, and connect participants with supportive community resources.
DeltaEarth: Global problems seeking community solutions
Jersey City, New Jersey
Team Lead: Shelley Ma
Team Members: Shreya Todi, Steven Bucheli, Surabhi Sharma, and Emely Onofre
DeltaEarth aims to address the lack of sufficient, honest public engagement and knowledge about key global issues, the limited resources available for environmental education and sustainability, and the gap between awareness and action. Rigorous research is paired with accessible, factual, and engaging storytelling through DeltaEarth’s “doomsday museum.” With hands-on, creative learning experiences in conservation and environmental awareness, DeltaEarth turns education into real-world change.
Democracy Starts Here: Making Middle School Student Councils Work
New York City, New York
Team Lead: Jesse Lee
Team Members: Natan Schwarz, Phoebe Carr, and Aviv Itan
Many middle school student councils are ineffective, which matters because students’ first experiences with representation can shape whether they stay civically engaged later in life. Democracy Starts Here will create training materials, a website, and workshops to help middle school student council members lead more successfully, work constructively with adult allies, and solve school problems collaboratively while building core civic skills.
Democratic Technology Collective
Durham, North Carolina
Team Lead: Kwame Mensah-Boone
Team Members: Caroline Wang, Sagar Raghavan, Saanvi Kulkarni, and Luan Hoang
North Carolina faces a deepening crisis of civic disengagement rooted in a lack of accessible information about local elections and a shortage of meaningful platforms for constituents to engage with their representatives, eroding trust in government, reducing public participation, and weakening the foundation of a healthy democracy. The Democratic Technology Collective project takes a two-pronged approach: developing a local voter information platform that increases awareness of local candidates and elections and organizing government-partnered hackathons that bridge the gap between technology and government while creating meaningful opportunities for collaboration between residents and public officials.
DemocraZy: The Pod
Glen Allen, Virginia
Team Lead: Charvi Deorah
Team Members: Nikki Rajan, Uma Raju, and Mysha Zaidi
More than 85% of young voters and activists believe their votes do not matter due to the government(Harvard Youth Poll). These are the leaders of the future, and allowing them to remain disillusioned and disconnected from their government can only lead to less effective leadership. Through easily understandable explanations of government structure, pop culture connections, and specific individual stories, DemocraZy helps young people feel more connected to political issues on a personal level, encouraging voter registration and civic engagement.
Dinner Table Dialogue
Providence, Rhode Island
Team Lead: Khadija Buke
Team Members: Lillian Harper and Nyria Delph
The Dinner Table Dialogue Initiative, created through the Emerging Leaders for Community Change cohort, an affiliate of the Carter Center, seeks to foster difficult conversations on Brown University’s campus in a humanizing, relationship-building manner. Dinner Table Dialogue proposes bi-weekly dinners centered on contentious topics because the simple act of sharing a meal while discussing contentious topics is what the public sphere needs today!
FinWhiz: Student-Led Financial Literacy Program for the Next Generation
Newark, Delaware
Team Lead: Mihir Tammana
Team Members: Sriram Burri, Shaarav Damle, Savir Damle, and Advik Karamalaputi
FinWhiz addresses the lack of financial literacy among elementary and middle school students, as this skill is important for students to learn early on. It helps equip them with the knowledge they need to be financially responsible in the real world.
Food 4 Thought
Decatur, Arkansas
Team Lead: Diya Gopi
Team Members: Krisha Patel, Amara Jones, Beatrix Drewyor, and Arham Shah
Food insecurity is pervasive in Arkansas, for example in counties such as Decatur, especially for children; studies have explicitly shown that hunger affects academic performance & children’s abilities to learn; in order for children to retain their learning in school, they need to be fed nutritious foods, by creating a community outreach program, we can help solve this issue and help the younger generations thrive in and outside of the classroom. We are partnering with local schools, the NWA Food Bank, and community organizations to provide weekend food bags containing three nutritious meals (including fruits, protein, fiber, carbohydrates, and healthy snacks) to address the gap in food access when free school breakfasts and lunches are unavailable, while coordinating food sourcing, volunteer packing, and Friday afternoon distribution through local partners such as local councils for a safe drop-off space, and expanding the program’s reach throughout the state as it grows.
HEAL: Humanitarian Engineering for Aid & Lifesaving
San Diego, California
Team Lead: Lino Maricic
Team Members: Aiden Lee, Sophia Hu, and Lylia Zheng
A significant percentage of Americans lack access to basic health care. We address this challenge by using CAD and 3D printing technology to design, fabricate, and distribute high-quality, low-cost stethoscopes to clinics in medically underserved areas.
How the Unhoused Live: A Lens into New York City’s Safe Havens & Traditional Shelters
New York City, New York
Team Lead: Annick Niyonsaba
Team Members: Alexander Shearman, Batya Yelloz, Emily Tiwary, and Nour Moulhim
How the Unhoused Live: A Lens into New York City’s Safe Havens & Traditional Shelters is a documentary project that examines the conditions in NYC’s temporary housing options for unhoused New Yorkers. Through rigorous research, using both qualitative and quantitative data, we intend to highlight ways in which the system can be improved, as well as center the voices and needs of those experiencing street homelessness.
Iowa Cancer Prevention & Safety Initiative
Waukee, Iowa
Team Lead: Preet Shukla
Team Members: Sebnati Jemal, Endrit Ramku, Duru Akgun, and Arjun Anugole
Iowa Cancer Prevention & Safety Initiative aims to tackle the cancer crisis in Iowa that has emerged due to nitrate runoff in our waterways, entering our drinking water. We plan to propose legislation that will create rules and regulations to ensure the safety of every Iowan. We plan to propose legislation to establish rules and regulations to ensure the safety of every Iowan. In this legislation, we establish the 5 mg/L health standard, which will require the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to issue public health advisories when nitrate levels exceed unsafe levels.
IRIS
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Team Lead: Alexander Du
Team Members: Angela Wei, Sophie Li, and Kavin Dassanaike
IRIS addresses the severe safety hazards and fear of outdoor travel faced by Pittsburgh’s visually impaired community due to inaccessible, non-ADA-compliant infrastructure, which matters because these barriers strip away independence and prevent residents from accessing jobs, medical care, and transit. IRIS addresses this problem through an affordable, discreet wearable AI navigation assistant that continuously maps the user’s surroundings in 3D and communicates safe pathways through intuitive vibration patterns.
Kenosha County Starstruck Student Showcase
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Team Lead: Ethan Weis
Team Members: Ellie Hetland, Myra Franz, Kaylee Fredrickson, and Bennett Fuoss
Kenosha County Starstruck Student Showcase addresses the issue of underfunded schools in the community, which limit students’ opportunities. The team plans to raise awareness of the issue at a student-led student celebration event by educating parents and other attendees.
Letters Across Generations: Through Connections and Civic Dialogue
South Windsor, Connecticut
Team Lead: Sahasraprithi Suriyakumarr
Team Members: Illaria Liedtke, Tancrède Weinstein, Parker Maritzen, and Disha Gottam
Loneliness among seniors has been deemed the “new smoking,” emerging as a critical public health crisis with recent research equating its impact on elderly mortality to smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day (HHS). Letters Across Generations aims to address this issue through an intergenerational pen pal program that will connect local elementary school students with seniors in local retirement homes.
LungIQ: Closing the Gap
Indianapolis, Indiana
Team Lead: Parth Mantri
Team Members: Caleb Aguayo, Bhargava Mortha, Manzoor Mohis, and Abhinav Mortha
The “LungIQ: Closing the Gap” project addresses the critical issue of low lung cancer screening rates in Indianapolis and St. Louis, which is significant because earlier detection through low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) can reduce mortality by 20%. The project addresses this challenge by deploying an interactive online risk-assessment tool, combined with community tabling sessions, to educate the public on screening eligibility and insurance coverage.
Mind Over Silence
Las Vegas, Nevada
Team Lead:
Team Members: Aashrithaa Vishegu, Emma Goldstein, and Hendrix Landess
Mind Over Silence addresses the growing mental health crisis driven by stigma, social isolation, and unequal access to support, because these barriers prevent many young people from seeking help and negatively impact their well-being. The project reduces stigma and increases access to support by creating youth-led school chapters and digital platforms that encourage open conversations, peer connection, and awareness of mental health resources.
Music No Boundaries
Rapid City, South Dakota
Team Lead: Claire Wang
Team Members: Evita Coleman, Rachael Bunger, and Tommy Piasecki
Music No Boundaries addresses inequitable access to sustained music education for low-income, first-generation, and immigrant youth in Katy, Texas, and Rapid City, South Dakota, where instrument costs, private-lesson fees, and school funding cuts leave students without creative and civic learning spaces. We provide free weekly in-person instruction in violin, piano, guitar, and voice for 6 months to 1 year, supplying instruments, sheet music, stands, and individualized lessons so students can learn, perform, and belong without financial barriers.
Myth Bites: From Misinformation to Community Action
Irvine, California
Team Lead: Anish Chogle
Team Members: Diane Almaoui, Anvita Ambardekar, Sumayya Jaffer, and Aneya Patel
Myth Bites mitigates the spread of nutrition and health misinformation among teens on social media by teaching them to detect false claims and make informed food choices before those myths have long-term effects on their health. Through this competition, teens debunk viral nutrition myths by researching and posting accurate content on the Myth Bites platform.
New Roots, New York
Flushing, Queens, New York
Team Lead: Tiana Pan
Team Members: Nikita Bansal, William Chen, and Ava Lew
Immigrant women in Flushing, Queens are caught in a cycle where caregiving responsibilities make it impossible to learn English, gain job skills, or enter the workforce, leaving both mothers and their children without the support they need to build stable, independent lives. New Roots, New York runs parallel programming in which immigrant women receive English tutoring, civic literacy workshops, and vocational skill-building in areas like nail and hair care, while their children attend supervised enrichment programs in the same building, removing the childcare barrier that blocks access to everything else.
New York Student Board Member Association
Orchard Park, New York
Team Lead: Luke Lippitt
Team Members: Sydney Dobmeier and Salil Karkhanis
Since New York’s 2025 law created Student Board Members (SBMs) in every district in the state, many new SBMs feel isolated and lack the training or support to exercise a genuine voice on their school boards. New York Student Board Member Association convenes SBMs from across the state to share best practices and build a peer network where members develop the skills and confidence to represent their schools effectively.
O.R.E.S.: Optimizing Responsible Energy Solutions
Powell, Ohio
Team Lead: Mihika Narayan
Team Members: Vihaan Narayan, Michelle Huang, Chase Petersen, and Camryn Harris
Rapid data center expansion in our community is driving up energy demand, increasing electricity costs, and disproportionately burdening low-income and rural families with higher bills and reduced energy reliability. Using a scalable, community-based distribution model, O.R.E.S. provides power strips, weather stripping, and LED bulbs in partnership with local governments and organizations to reduce excess energy use and alleviate rising costs for those most vulnerable to energy burdens they did not create.
PassPortals
Oakton, Virginia
Team Lead: Kaashvi Kasera
Team Members: Ran (Ella) Shen, Jingchen (Astrid) Wang, Victoria Skender, and Sahasra Pubbaraju
Students in the Oakton, Virginia, community often feel uncomfortable about displaying their backgrounds or do not recognize their peers’ traditions in a respectful manner, which is why our project will address cultural isolation and increase cultural awareness. The Pass Portals project addresses this challenge through a series of community events where community members can experience and connect with a variety of cultures, and will also develop and launch a simulation or game that teaches cultural understanding and appreciation.
Project Agora
Duvall, Washington
Team Lead: Liam Holzer
Team Members: Alistair Wu, Liam Gershony, Arnav Kaja, and Siddhant Jha
Project Agora combats the spread of misinformation and the lack of connection in small communities due to the expansion of news deserts caused by the decline of local journalism in Washington State. Starting with the community in mind, Project Agora will raise awareness about the news desert crisis in the first few months by setting up events and finding reporters, followed by the instatement of their cyclical journalism framework to fight the problem in the following year with the support of community mentors, ensuring expansion and proper guidance.
Project Lighthouse
Flower Mound, Texas
Team Lead: Nimisha Sambhaktula
Team Members: Aanya Citigori, Shrika Mupparapu, and Joyce Yang
Students spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on social media yet receive virtually no education on how the algorithms, persuasive design features, and AI systems behind these platforms are engineered to shape their beliefs and behavior — leaving an entire generation navigating powerful influence systems without the tools to question them. Project Lighthouse runs Reality Labs — immersive, peer-facilitated workshops where students reverse-engineer algorithms, identify manipulative design features, evaluate AI-generated content, and redesign platform interfaces themselves, transforming them from passive consumers into informed participants in digital spaces.
Project MedBridge
Columbus, Ohio
Team Lead: Ben Kurian
Team Members: Arjun Pandya, Naman Soni, and Aayush Pande
Hospital surplus waste and the lack of an accessible entry point for students into healthcare services result in usable supplies being discarded, while underserved communities around the world lack basic care. Project MedBridge collects unexpired surplus medical supplies, engages students in sorting and packaging them, and redistributes them to low-resource clinics.
Project Synapse
Sammamish, Washington
Team Lead:
Team Members: Keshav Arun, Om Kulkarni, Anuraag Prakash, and Akhil Yenamandra
Across schools, neurodivergent students are often excluded from neurotypical social interaction. Project Synapse fosters understanding, empathy, and meaningful relationships between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals through education, awareness, and community engagement.
Project Utah Radiation Survivor Advocacy
Park City, Utah
Team Lead: Samantha Vogel
Team Members: Alec Lebwohl, Mia Sawyer, and Grace Canada
Project Utah Radiation Survivor Advocacy works to combat ongoing radiation exposure left over from nuclear testing that continues to cause increased health risks. We are staging performances of Exposed, a play that shares stories of those affected by nuclear testing in Utah, to raise awareness and funding for a reverse osmosis water filter to combat ongoing radiation exposure.
Queer the Ballot: Empowering LGBTQ+ Youth Through Civic Engagement
Los Angeles, California
Team Lead: Sophia Wong
Team Members: Jay Roy, Alex Howard, and Christopher Grady
As over 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced nationwide in 2025 alone, LGBTQ+ youth are becoming disillusioned with civic participation, leaving their voices absent from the political decisions shaping their futures. Through the distribution of civic engagement toolkits, in-person and online workshops, and a social media visibility campaign, Queer The Ballot will provide LGBTQ+ youth with the tools and confidence needed to navigate an increasingly polarized political landscape.
Realize to Act
Saint Louis, Missouri
Team Lead: Tanya Keskar
Team Members: Simone Tong and Nihaarika Jape
Around 11 million children in the United States experience poverty, leaving many without access to essential educational resources, increasing financial burdens on families and teachers, and limiting students’ ability to fully participate in school and their communities. Realize to Act is building long-term, technology-enabled pathways that connect schools with community partners to close resource gaps and ensure students have access to essential educational resources, while empowering young people to lead in identifying and addressing needs within their communities.
Shade Equity Project
Dallas, Texas
Team Lead: Avi Nautiyal
Team Members: Jeongheon Lee, Datta Kathoju, Agastya Paligaram, and Lakshya Nilgiri
The Shade Equity Project addresses unequal access to tree canopy and long-term tree care, which contributes to higher temperatures, fewer safe outdoor spaces, and unequal environmental conditions across neighborhoods. The Shade Equity Project addresses this challenge by giving residents a simple app to map, monitor, and care for neighborhood trees, making it easier for communities to work together to expand and maintain local green spaces.
Shared Skies Initiative
Dallas, Texas
Team Lead: Nathan Tan
Team Members: Saketh Chebrolu, Avi Aggarwal, Angela Xue, and Amari Sims
The Shared Skies Initiative is tackling environmental injustice and the unequal distribution of air quality, with certain Dallas neighborhoods facing asthma rates 3-4x higher than state and national averages. Shared Skies tackles this multifaceted challenge through accessible research, bilingual education, and community-based advocacy efforts.
SimpliLeg
Granite Bay, California
Team Lead:
Team Members: Anya Gopalakrishnan, Jenna Jarrar, Noor Sidhu, and Rebecca Gehlmann
Young people, especially those from underrepresented areas, face barriers to understanding complex legislation, ultimately culminating in lower voter turnout and civic disengagement. SimpliLeg allows students to create nonpartisan bill summaries and interactive civic resources that their peers can understand, while also connecting them with legislator perspectives—making legislation legible.
Solidarity for Her Equality
Mercedes, Texas
Team Lead: Jazmin Tamez
Team Members: Kera Williams, Sonja Vinh-Thomas, Aram Jung, and Gabrielle Christie
Solidarity for Her Equality addresses systemic gender disparities embedded in law, policy, and governance by advancing rights-aware and rights-advancing legislation that protects and promotes the human rights of women and girls. Solidarity for Her Equality addresses this through a legislative tracker, congressional scorecards, corporate fiscal donations, youth-centered research and advocacy programs, and civic education initiatives to expand community engagement and accountability.
Sowing Success
Harlowton, Montana
Team Lead: Reese Cooney
Team Members: Roan Peters, Ryker Peters, and Azaria Beley-Davis
Sowing Success addresses the aging agricultural industry and the need for young people to enter the profession. The project addresses this issue by creating presentations to help elementary students become excited about agriculture, setting up agriculture-related professions at a career fair, and expanding community knowledge of the vast opportunities in agriculture.
Students for Patient Advocacy Nationwide
Atlanta, Georgia
Team Lead: Vishank Panchbhavi
Team Members: Shayan Saqib, Joel Blessan, Aayush Jetly, and Peyton Hoang
Too many patients and healthcare professionals are left out of policy decisions that directly affect their lives, limiting opportunities to create more effective, equitable, and patient-focused healthcare. Students for Patient Advocacy Nationwide helps students learn how to engage with the legislative process by researching bills, writing policy recommendations, and working with lawmakers on healthcare issues.
Taos Community Recycling
Taos, New Mexico
Team Lead: Bernice O’Reilly
Team Members: Jenea Perez Montoya, Isais Munoz, and Juniper Nycamp
Taos Community Recycling addresses a lack of access and awareness of recycling in our community. By creating local recycling and upcycling systems, the Taos Community Recycling project helps to create a feasible way for community members to reduce their waste.
Texas Environmental Action Movement (T.E.A.M.)
Allen, Texas
Team Lead: Aarya Modi
Team Members: Clair Lee, Selene Garcia, and Shyla Mathur
T.E.A.M. addresses the environmental inattention and neglect that overlooked North Texas communities face, from uncollected litter to unmonitored air pollution, because every neighborhood deserves clean, healthy, well-cared-for shared spaces that foster community pride, connection, and well-being. T.E.A.M. organizes monthly cleanups, donation drives, educational workshops, and sustainability fundraisers and, through its Air Quality Engineering Initiative (AQEI), builds and deploys air quality sensors across Allen, TX, to bring community members together, restore shared spaces, and give overlooked neighborhoods the data they need to advocate for cleaner air.
The Bench and Bar Briefings: A Seminar on Legal Tradition and Civil Discourse
Wilmington, Delaware
Team Lead: Ari Satran
Team Members: Ansh Kapoor, Isabelle Daniel, and Margaret Weymouth
The project addresses the lack of accessible, meaningful civic and legal education opportunities for Delaware high school students by creating pathways for students to engage with the legal system beyond competitive programs and develop skills in civil discourse and critical inquiry. The Bench and Bar Briefings create a student-led seminar that connects high school students with judges and attorneys through structured, inquiry-based discussions on legal principles, history, and ethical reasoning.
The Perpetua Policy Project
Boise, Idaho
Team Lead: Emma Brulotte
Team Members: Parker Ames, Zac Knapp, Kyrie Bean, and Alma Azocar
The Perpetua Policy Project aims to fill the gap in programs that equip young Idahoans with the skills to participate in politics and with the scholarly rigor necessary to influence policy through informed, constructive advocacy. The project empowers the next generation of Idaho’s leaders by bridging the gap between campus and the Capitol.
The Prairie Project: Restoring Environmental Education Alongside Native Ecosystems
Urbana, Illinois
Team Lead: Robert Houston
Team Members: Ben Kerch, Brandt Henderson, and Miriam Arend
The Prairie Project addresses the disconnect between human and natural communities. We’re cultivating a restored prairie and pollinator garden as an educational and community space while building infrastructure to help others do the same elsewhere.
Think Before You Click
Great Falls, Virginia
Team Lead: Jenny Wang
Team Members: Lekha Kolli, Anniyah Rizvi, and Jason Wang
Think Before You Click promotes digital literacy education to help community members detect misinformation, online scams, and AI-generated content in an increasingly digital society. The team addresses this challenge through interactive workshops, writing competitions, and community partnerships with existing digital literacy organizations, providing a uniquely youth-led approach.
Unequal Lives: The Architecture of Global Apartheid
Tempe, Arizona
Team Lead: Daryn Perlman
Team Members: Ryan Meyer, Tamara Ortiz-Macas, and Akanksha Somani
We address the issue of immigration, specifically the lack of awareness of the problems migrant workers face, despite their being the backbone of our food production and society’s labor force. Their documentary will amplify immigrant voices to increase awareness of the real issues immigrants face, and that policymakers must address.
Unlocked & Unified
Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Team Lead: Asher Pitofsky
Team Members: Amiel Harris, Divit Aggarwal, and Talya Thomas
Unlocked & Unified aims to make it easier for returning citizens to understand the resources available to them upon release, so they can have a smoother transition back into society and overcome the barriers they face. The team will create a website that compiles abundant digital resources in one place, so returning citizens can easily find the resources they need to get back on their feet.
Vote16 MN
St. Paul, Minnesota
Team Lead: Averie Younge
Team Members: Kyle Chen, Norah Rashid, and Safiya Khimji
Vote16 MN’s mission is to support teen enfranchisement one step at a time, and this mission is crucial to empowering youth voices and opinions in civics for future generations. Vote16 MN’s lobbying efforts empower youth voices because we are fully youth-run and led, and our progress thus far shows the power of students when we unite. The team wants to spread that message across the state through legislation: youth voices matter and deserve a say in what our world should look like.
Vote16KY
Lexington, Kentucky
Team Lead: Ezra Anglin
Team Members: Caitlyn Douglas, Ismail Khan, and Collin McCormick
Kentucky youth are often treated as bystanders in their own education, thereby eroding the chance of creating more equitable and effective systems in a state whose public schools rank near the bottom nationally. Vote16KY exists to further the voices of Kentucky youth, particularly through suffrage expansion.
VoteVisible
Issaquah, Washington
Team Lead: Shritan Pothini
Team Members: Akshaj Mamidi, Arjun Harshe, Prady Mandalapu, and Alexander Mammar
Young people across Washington State have no accessible way to understand how government budget decisions affect the resources they depend on, including hospitals, clinics, schools, and parks, leaving them powerless in civic processes that directly shape their health and well-being. VoteVisible is a free, mobile-friendly platform that translates state budget decisions into plain language, shows the real dollar impact on critical health and youth resources, and gives students a direct way to contact their representatives about funding that affects their communities.
Why Show Up?
Potsdam, New York
Team Lead: Anya Bansal
Team Members: Rose Cox, Sarvesh Sitaramen, Jeffrey Palma, and Annabel Curtis
Why Show Up? targets student absenteeism because student education matters for the future of our workforce. The team aims to reduce student absenteeism by using podcasts, journaling, and other mechanisms.
Wilmington Youth Summit
Wilmington, Delaware
Team Lead: Amaia Cruceta
Team Members: Chloe Agyemang and Regan Heitz
The lack of community engagement and resources invested in young people’s educational, personal, civic, and professional lives is detrimental to their chances of a stable and thriving adulthood. Wilmington Youth Summit bridges the gap between underrepresented youth and their community leaders in order to provide the resources needed to succeed in their everyday lives and as they progress into adulthood.
Your Mind Matters!
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Team Lead: Destiny Joseph
Team Members: Alencia Brown, Octavian McDonald, and Jasmine McDonald
Your Mind Matters addresses the challenges of mental health awareness, advocacy, and the need for viable connections to mental health resources that directly impact the community. The team will address this challenge by advocating for mental health, raising awareness of community resources, and bridging gaps across populations within the mental health space.
YOUth Can Do It!
Las Vegas, Nevada
Team Lead:
Team Members: Lilah Cohen, Aryana Shah, Jacob Garber, and Henry Kluger
YOUth Can Do It! addresses the growing issue of youth disempowerment: when the next generation doesn’t feel empowered to effect change, action won’t be taken to solve the problems plaguing their communities most. Through book readings, workshops, and peer-led guidance, YOUth Can Do It! helps youth turn into community pioneers and visionaries, all while empowering them with the confidence to accomplish anything.
Youth Civics Network
Dallas, Texas
Team Lead: Sania Abraham
Team Members: Anoushka Rangan, David Brown, Mateo Cisneros, and Frank Niu
The Youth Civics Network seeks to address the national civic literacy gap caused by the lack of civic education and the urgency of this deficiency. Their solution is the Youth Civics Network (YCN), a 100% youth-led volunteer organization addressing the national gap in civic literacy and engagement by facilitating high school volunteers to teach civics to elementary students through after-school programs, daycares, and libraries.
The Confluence Initiative (Confluence)
Washington, District of Columbia
Team Lead: Carolina Oxenstierna
Team Members: Aditya Mehta
AI policy is being decided right now in the heart of the nation, yet— students who care about engaging locally in DC— have no real way to participate as a coalition in these conversations, even though they are the ones who will inherit AI’s future. Confluence will host a series of civic engagement workshops, town halls, and dialogues across Washington, DC, over the course of the fellowship year—bringing students into structured conversations with legislators, policymakers, and AI policy professionals working on these issues. Confluence will also partner with local organizations to put student voices directly in front of the people shaping AI’s future.
Note: All selected teams include a team lead and four team members. The names here include those who had confirmed permission to be listed publicly at the time of publication.
