“Politics isn’t just the speeches or the televised debates, it’s a living, breathing force that shapes our everyday lives,” highlighted Victor Ni, a Senior at Canberra Grammar School in Canberra, Australia. A champion of youth political advocacy and service-led leadership, Victor has made a habit out of getting involved with initiatives that help students better engage with diplomacy and decision-making. As the captain of his school’s debate team, Victor has channeled this belief into action. He launched a mentoring program that now supports over 100 students, helping them hone their speaking and argumentation skills and critically engage with topics in politics, economics, and social justice. Under his leadership, his debate team achieved a strong performance at the State Championships. While most see debate as a tool for argumentation, Victor sees it as a tool for empathy that allows cross-cultural exchange. His value of empathy has led him to explore the intersection between politics and service. It is at that intersection that Victor created International Youth Model United Nations (IYMUN), an initiative that aims to support the proliferation of Model UN in communities that do not have the traditional resources to foster youth diplomacy. Through his work with IYMUN, they have reached youth from over 20 countries. Recognized globally for his work, Victor was named a Crimson 18u18 finalist and a HunDRED Global Youth Ambassador. Through these platforms, he continues to advocate for a world where youth are seen not only as future leaders but as changemakers in the present. As a strong supporter of youth voices in politics, he knows firsthand the importance of such opportunities, leading him to serve as a Youth Representative on the Vinnies Social Justice Council and as a Mental Health Ambassador with UrVoice Australia. In these roles, he has worked with young leaders across the state to improve access to mental health support for youth, helping to coordinate peer education initiatives and drive grassroots engagement. His advocacy culminated in delivering an adjournment speech in local Parliament, where he called for greater investment in youth mental health and conservation. “Systemic change starts with giving young people platforms to speak,” he shared, reflecting on how personal stories can shape public policy. For Victor, politics is not just a theory—it’s about people. Whether standing at a podium or organizing a campaign, he believes leadership is about listening and acting with purpose. In the future, he hopes to continue challenging structural inequalities and influencing decisions that impact youth, all in an effort to further “amplify underrepresented voices.” He feels it is especially important to amplify youth voices, because “too often, education systems and policy frameworks are designed for but not with youth.” Without the government actively listening to what the youth need, it is difficult for policy to effectively impact youth. And yet, youth are often viewed as token participants. The lack of youth in government spaces not only negatively impacts the younger demographics but also the broader community. As Victor notes, young people are “able to challenge and advocate for a more inclusive and responsive system” by bringing in “lived experiences and fresh perspectives.” Victor himself has seen this up close at Model UN youth councils, where “students influenced policy decisions and organized initiatives around social justice.” The lack of youth in these spaces thus halts future progress. Victor hopes to see his generation given a legitimate seat at the table in the future and strives to support this change himself. He notes that vulnerability is one of the leadership characteristics necessary to ensure this change occurs. Vulnerability is not often the first characteristic that comes to mind when the idea of political leadership is posed, and yet, it is likely the most important. Vulnerability, as Victor argues, “is not a weakness but a strength.” In his eyes, a vulnerable politician is a politician who listens and can acknowledge that the apathetic or oppositional voices are just as important as the active and supportive voices. A vulnerable leader understands, as Victor puts it, that they are representing the entire community and not just their supporters. Therefore, Victor argues, true political leadership happens from the back. In the “quiet spaces where trust is built with people, where people are more empowered, and when others are given a chance to rise.” Leadership is thus not about a control of power but rather steering the group towards collective success. Unfortunately, like many his age, Victor feels the world is lacking in this type of leadership. He hopes to help change this by emulating this leadership in his own life and believes that the incorporation of youth into politics is a strong way to reverse this pattern. Victor advises his peers to “not wait until you feel qualified to care, contribute, or lead, because politics isn’t just reserved for the experts, it’s shaped by people who are brave enough to show up in the first place.” Oftentimes, politics is viewed as distant and abstruse, especially for youth, but Victor highlights that “the most important political changes often begin with someone like you or me asking a question.” In the end, becoming involved with politics does not mean running for office; whether you are advocating for a local issue or having conversations with your peers, you are participating in politics, and that matters. If you stay curious and informed, you have the ability and power to make meaningful change in the world. Read his 1st-place submission here.

“You can’t lead if you don’t have people to lead, and you can’t lead if you don’t have other leaders around you,” explained avid debater and piano player Joyce Li, a junior at Port Moody Secondary High School near Vancouver, British Columbia. This is a lesson she learned through her position as the founder of the Lower Mainland Debate Society, a nonprofit that gives free debate lessons to 2,000 students globally. Throughout her role, she learned the necessity of trusting her team and delegating tasks, noting that being open to a collaborative environment is essential for the growth of any project. Additionally, she serves as Vice President of her school’s student council – an experience that has taught her the importance of support systems in her life. Throughout her campaign, she recognized her friends’ impactful contributions, whether through campaigning for her or celebrating with her when her victory was announced. She believes the value of support systems can be applied to political leadership in general. To her, political leadership is not a position “you hold for yourself, but one that you hold for other people because they want to see you there.” Unfortunately, as Joyce notes, while many youth and adults want to see youth in political leadership, this does not often occur. Joyce has noticed the disparity in how “student voices are heard, but they’re not appreciated.” Joyce has particularly experienced this in her own life through her unsuccessful efforts to start a debate club at her school over the past three years. While she has pushed hard, she has found the administrators at her schools to be steadfast. She understands that while students can feel limited by the support they receive from the adults in their life, she recognizes the reality that young people obviously don’t have as much personal or professional life experience. Nonetheless, Joyce argues that even though she and others her age may not have yet experienced the great highs and lows of life, they still have their own unique set of experiences and perspectives, perhaps only afforded to them because of their youth, that make their voices valuable. Thus, youth voices should not just be listened to but elevated. In her future career, Joyce hopes to go into behavioral economics with the goal of becoming a lawyer. She is currently interested in constitutional and criminal law. One of her mentors, Professor Hollway from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, greatly influenced her interest in criminal law. Through a summer program, she heard from Professor Hallway about his work surrounding false incarceration, leading her to develop a passion for this area of law. Her interest in law has also intersected with her passion for writing. Since 7th grade, she has been developing a written passion project in the form of a tragedy surrounding law. To Joyce, “tragedies speak more profoundly about the human experience than any sort of happiness could” because the way we experience happiness is different for every individual, but we often grieve for the same things, allowing us to connect on a more personal level with those around us. Joyce further highlights the importance of connecting with others in the sense of political leadership. Joyce notes that while political leaders can't make everyone happy, it is important for leaders to connect with others to ensure those they represent are confident in supporting them. As Joyce put it, “When you fly away to your own bird song, and there’s no one around to listen to you, then no matter how good your song is, you make no impact.” When asked to offer advice to her peers, Joyce boldly says “not to fear failure but to fear giving up.” She implores her peers to, even when challenges arise, stay strong and continue pushing. And, if ultimately you do fail, “your fight in pushing is worthy enough.” Read her 1st-place submission here.

“Being a good leader means empowering other people to do their best,” stated Sara Shiraz, a 17-year-old student at the Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Sara has long been dedicated to serving others. Her former school’s motto, Ut Serviamus (that we may serve), has become a guiding phrase in her life. Her most impactful service experience happened a few years ago when she attended a summer camp in India where participants from over 10 countries were selected to help school-aged boys learn how to look after their environment and the space around them. Through this experience, Sara not only developed long-lasting connections but arrived at a new perspective on life. As Sara put it, “There are people who would trade your worst day for the world because, for them, that would be their best day.” This new perspective enforced the importance of reflection in Sara’s life and being grateful for the opportunities she receives. In the future, she hopes to return to the school where she spent her summer and support the creation of solutions for more complex problems in the community, such as infrastructure. During her time in India, she also visited a northern village in Gujarat, India, where she toured safe housing spaces created by the Aga Khan Development Network Agency for Habitat, a subset of the overall Aga Khan Development Network. The Aga Khan Development Network is a philanthropic foundation set up by His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, dedicated to improving the quality of life for those in need. The broad service initiatives the Network has conducted have long been a source of profound inspiration for Sara, further entrenching her dedication to service. In the future, Sara hopes to join the Aga Khan Development Network and support their work to help communities and individuals become self-reliant. Princess Aga Khan, the daughter of His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, has served as another source of inspiration for Sara. Princess Aga Khan has worked on development projects across the world and has an integral role in her late father’s philanthropic foundation. She has long been a champion of aiding those in need and utilizes her position to increase awareness on issues of importance. For Sara, Princess Aga Khan embodies who she wishes to become, a passionate individual who has dedicated their life in the service of others. Specifically, Sara hopes to dedicate her life to aiding women who have faced domestic violence. When she was in India, she met a group of women who had locked themselves in a courtroom for 40 hours without food or water to protest the gender based discrimination they faced when attempting to find employment. Their story inspired her to create change within the gender equity space and specifically to work with underprivileged women. She thus hopes to develop an organization to support those facing domestic violence in her future professional career. Through her time in India, Sara learned the significance of having lived experiences. She notes that many adults often view youth as incapable of contributing to political spaces due to their lack of lived experiences. While she sees the reasoning behind this thinking, she also believes it is irresponsible for political leaders to make decisions about the future that youth will inherit when youth are not privy to the discussions themselves. To respect the youth, Sara notes, “we must give them a voice.” And if youth are given a voice, they can bring in outside perspectives that act as a check and balance on those in power to ensure the right topics are being tackled. Sara believes it is especially important to bring outsider youth perspectives into political decision-making because when individuals are given positions of power, they often forget the true problems of the populace or community in favor of their interests. When asked to provide advice for her peers, Sara highlighted the growth mindset and the importance of “being open to new challenges and learning new things.” She has observed that many individuals often see themselves in a static way; however, she implores young people to constantly push themselves to be better, curious, and open-minded. Moreover, she views open-mindedness as one of the key traits for success in life as one should never judge a book by its cover. All individuals, no matter their history, are worth listening to as every individual’s story can provide insight into your own. Read her 1st-place submission here.

ChallengeUS' co-founder, Brandon Tran, was recognized as one of 10 Youth Civic Solutions Prize awardees at the National Conference on Citizenship this past week in Washington D.C. The award, and its accompanying $1,000 grant, was administered by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Centered around the the theme of "Renewing Civic Health," this year's National Conference on Citizenship attracted hundreds of leaders from around the country representing dozens of industries — politics, tech, local and national media, education, nonprofits, federal government, advocacy, academia, philanthropy, consulting, and more. Some notable speakers and guests included former Democratic Congresswoman Rep. Val Demmings, former Republican Congressman Rep. Rodney Davis, and Michael Smith (CEO of AmeriCorps). Taking place at the Planet Word Museum, the conference featured a full day of panels, lectures, film screenings, networking events, award ceremonies and workshops — including one led by Brandon and the other student winners. One particular discussion that stood out to Brandon was the one between Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, and Sam Feist, the CEO of C-SPAN, on the role of media in a societal landscape that increasingly faces distrust from the public, the viral nature of social media, and the dissemination of misinformation. In his words, "This was really the first time I had the direct opportunity to hear from the leaders and stewards of our media institutions what they think of their own industry. People like Katherine Maher and Andrew Feist are decision-makers in their space, not the usual opinion-makers we hear from, and that vantage point was fascinating. Again, these weren't pundits and personalities. These were the executives behind the pundits and personalities." That panel was just one of many moments at the conference aimed at "renewing civic health" in the United States. The day culminated with an award ceremony, where winners of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars' Youth Civic Solutions Prize were recognized alongside leaders like Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who was unable to attend but accepted the award with a video recording. With the momentum and support following this opportunity, we at ChallengeUS are perfectly positioned to successfully execute our upcoming Winter competition cycle. We're also excited at the prospect of continued partnership with the Institute for Citizens & Scholars as well as all the incredible connections we made the conference.

The profound declaration that “young voices often fill rooms but fall on deaf ears” resounded across the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Hall at the Summit of the Future Action Days. Two of our team members, Brandon Tran (CEO and Co-Founder) and Lauren Thomas (Director of Development) had the remarkable opportunity to hear these words in person at the UN. The idea behind the quote was truly a pervasive theme of the weekend as the UN geared up for the Summit of the Future. Youth stakeholders and experts alike touched on the necessity of incorporating youth voices into political spheres internationally over two full days packed with events, panels, presentations, celebration, and more. The necessity and importance of incorporating youth minds in traditionally non-youth spheres is a core principle upon which ChallengeUS was founded. We believe that it is necessary to engage and elevate student voices on critical issues. As Josefa Tauil, a representative of the Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group, emphasized in her speech during the “Conversation with the Secretary-General” event, Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration provides evidence for no hesitation on the inclusion of youth in international political spaces. Thus, the youth have a human right to political inclusion, especially in political conversations that impact their future such as climate change. Conversations that include the youth, Tauil noted, are needed to end social isolation and inform the global environment on the essential needs of the present and future. These core principles on youth incorporation was the basis of numerous roundtable talks throughout the two days that ranged from climate equity to gender equality. During a conversation relating to climate equity, Paulo Bacca, the Deputy Director of Dejusticia, stressed the transformative change youth are capable of bringing about. Bacca has seen this change first-hand when his organization aided Columbian youth in winning their case against the Columbian government for deforestation. A panel on sustainability followed Bacca’s conversation on equity as generational equity and the importance of investing in the world’s children were highlighted. As many speakers at the Action Days acknowledged, including Bacca and the panel on sustainability, today’s youth will inherit the consequences of current actions and therefore should have their perspectives considered in decision-making. ChallengeUS strongly agrees with this shared belief in the importance of activating and elevating student voices on critical global challenges—climate change, poverty, war, inequality, and so on. UN Secretary-General António Guterres went even further during the Opening Ceremony, advocating not only for youth consultation but also “moments of active intervention from young people.” And these moments of active intervention, the Secretary-General stressed, need to be systemic and genuine, not tokenistic. Overall, it was clear the thought leaders there felt that for governments to properly address the needs of the people, youth voices must be heard. And not just heard, but listened to and understood. The youth are the future, and as such, must have a seat at the table in conversations relating to the future. Otherwise, intergenerational conversations will not be achieved and solutions to global challenges will lack key insights from the most innovative cohort of the global population.

“I like to say that sociology teaches me what I want to fix, and economics teaches me how to fix it,” explained Ciara O’Brien, a 2nd year at Trinity College Dublin. O’Brien is a 19-year-old Political Science, Philosophy, Economics, and Sociology student at Trinity from West Dublin, Ireland. A youth social activist with an undercurrent of practicality, O’Brien has been indirectly engaged with political action since her time at a convent school where she fought to change the dress code to allow women to wear trousers. The scope of her activism ranges from discussing Irish compliance with the United Nations Convention to teaching English to refugees. While her time around institutions like the UN provides a significant networking opportunity, she says that “the impact that is made is negligible” compared to the more hands-on, personal opportunity to work with refugees, where she feels she “makes much more of an impact, just in terms of their day to day.” Her time working with refugees has taught her a valuable lesson in the quest for firsthand communication in understanding and addressing the needs of different communities. “For me, it would be talking to people rather than talking about them.” This lesson, O’Brien notes, is lost among some policymakers and activists as they tend to generalize what people need. O’Brien further observes political leaders’ tendency to generalize from her work with the United Nations, where she has noticed a growing disconnect between the older generation of policymakers and the rapidly evolving needs of younger generations. “It’s impossible for older adults to understand youth’s interest without speaking to youth… If you’re making policies for young people, you have to speak to young people, because otherwise, what?” O’Brien boldly declares her strong belief in the importance and necessity of youth voices being heard by those in power, especially when they are “making policies that would affect us for the next 60 years.” When the adults take the time to understand young people, she explained, they inevitably discover what young people find important. Specifically, when it comes to approaching policy issues and activism, O’Brien feels that “for the most part, we all understand there is this set of problems, and we just disagree on how to fix them.” In her opinion, the real challenge is in figuring out how to order these problems. The youth, acting as a fresh set of eyes, aid in the ordering of such issues. Building upon the power of the youth’s fresh creativity, she also promotes the value in reflection. “Reflection is the only way to make things better. Otherwise, we just keep repeating the same things.” For O’Brien, reflection is not about rethinking a big decision but rather understanding that what one did may not have been optimal and pledging to do a little bit better the next time, thereby leading to progressive improvement over time, especially if one is young. When asked to reflect on her own experiences to offer advice to her peers, O’Brien showcases her pragmatism again by taking the time to differentiate her advice based on whether or not someone has a lot of time on their hands. For those who are busy, O’Brien recommends spending “the time in your head consciously,” making it more reflective, and less chaotic in order to proactively “[choose] how to spend your thoughts.” For those with time on their hands, she encourages spending more time on “something a little bit more inspiring” to boost one’s self-worth. Ultimately, and as evident in her 1st place speech, O’Brien urges the youth to stay curious, ask questions, experience new things, and, above all, make their voices heard. Listen to her 1st-place speech here.

“Your voice does matter,” proclaims Laghima Pal, a Senior at Cumberland Valley High School in South Central Pennsylvania. An active member of her community, Pal strongly believes in the lasting impact youth can have on their communities. From participating in local events such as trash cleanups to serving on her high school’s student council, Pal has experienced firsthand young people’s capacity for positive impact on those around them, when given the platform to do so. In addition to large-scale ideas and solutions, Pal champions the necessity of local efforts because these efforts can also “have such a meaningful impact on others.” Simply helping someone out in your day-to-day life, Pal believes, is just as important as speaking to members of Congress or helping pass legislation. Unfortunately, as Pal notes, the platforms available for youth to make an impact are scarce, especially in suburban areas such as her hometown. She argues that in order to create innovative policy solutions that push society forward to the future, student voices and their unique perspectives deserve to be better platformed and elevated. Increased opportunities for youth engagement not only benefit policy but also, as she highlights, dramatically “increase the youth’s confidence and comfort regarding the future.” If the youth are going to be tasked with leading the future, then they must have the ability to influence the future. As an individual passionate about environmental studies and climate change, specifically, Pal affirms the sentiment that the leaders of tomorrow need to have a say in tomorrow. Sustainability and environmental issues are topics of ever-increasing importance as climate change continues to impact millions, and yet, she feels the generation that climate change will impact the hardest is often left out of the conversation. These issues have led Pal to develop a passion for creating pathways for young people to get involved in crafting climate change solutions and generating sustainable action. In college, she hopes to continue her climate change advocacy work while studying political science, economics, and/or environmental studies with the goal of creating lasting change for those around her in her future career. Pal’s passion for advocacy work originates from her belief in the importance of speaking out on issues she is passionate about. For her, speaking one’s mind is amongst the most beneficial things one can do for oneself. Characterizing herself as a shy person growing up, Pal admits she did not always feel comfortable doing so. However, with the help of mentors, such as the Editorial Director of her local newspaper, she was able to learn how to stand up for herself and her passions. Driven by her personal experience, Pal advises youth to have mentors in their corner to help guide them and show them how to create platforms for themself. When asked to offer further advice to her peers, Pal asserted the importance of being confident. While she notes that it is not necessary to be outspoken or extroverted, it is important to be confident in who you are, what you have to say, and what you want to do. While it may not always seem like one’s voice has an impact, Pal stresses that people greatly value others’ thoughts and opinions. Simply said, your voice is the most important tool you have and you should always, as Laghima Pal urges, try to get it out as much as possible. Read her 1st-place essay here.