San Diego Unified Students Make Their Voices Heard Through Congresswoman Jacobs’ Youth Vision Labs
Sixteen San Diego Unified School District students recently completed their participation in Congresswoman Sara Jacobs’ Youth Vision Labs. The program invited young people across California’s 51st Congressional District to identify the issues shaping their future and present solutions to community leaders.
"One of the biggest problems facing our country right now is a lack of trust in our elected officials and institutions. People don't believe that the government is working for them, and a huge part of that is because they don't see themselves in our government," said Congresswoman Sara Jacobs. The program brought together students from eighth through eleventh grade for five structured sessions focused on participatory democracy, the idea that people closest to a problem should help shape the response. Students researched issues important to them, built evidence-based cases, and delivered final presentations called “Youth Vision Briefs” to a panel that included the Congresswoman, school district leaders, and nonprofit partners.
"The most meaningful thing that I took away from Youth Vision Labs was that everybody, whether they are wealthy or poor and young or old, struggle with many issues that can be fixed by everyday people, not just people in power," said Zephyr Lopez, a student at Wangenheim Middle School. "This led me to notice that even as a student, I can have a large impact on all sorts of people struggling in our community by stepping up to help instead of sitting back and watching."
Congresswoman Jacobs continued: "I think one of the best ways we can fix this is to get young people directly involved in our democracy because they are our next generation of leaders. It's been a pleasure to work with so many bright, young San Diegans through my office's participatory democracy project and help them identify problems they see in our communities and brainstorm solutions. I'm grateful that my office can provide the space and support for them to learn how to lead."
The 16 students from across the district participated, spanning all five Board of Education Trustee areas:
- Annabelle Mangham, Wangenheim Middle School
- Helene Ngo, Wangenheim Middle School
- Zephyr Lopez, Wangenheim Middle School
- Alice Grieve, Wangenheim Middle School
- Eveline Nibagwire, Lincoln High School
- Katherine Liang, Mission Bay High School
- Ashley Ordaz, University City High School (Student Board Member)
- Molly Gallagher, Point Loma High School
- Nikhil Plettner Booker, San Diego High School
- Yasmeen Elmezain, University City High School
Over the course of the program, participants practiced critical thinking, public speaking, research methodology, collaborative problem-solving, and persuasive communication. They learned how to translate personal concerns into policy-relevant arguments and how to engage respectfully with perspectives different from their own.
These are skills at the core of San Diego Unified’s Goals and Guardrails, which calls for graduates who are ready for college, careers, and life as engaged community members. Youth Vision Labs put that goal into action.
About Youth Vision Labs
Youth Vision Labs was built on a simple but powerful premise: young people have insight into their communities that policymakers need to hear. Over five sessions, students moved from brainstorming the issues most important to them, to researching how those issues connect to government policy, to drafting and refining presentations grounded in evidence and real-world experience.
The first session, held January 28 via Zoom, introduced students to the concept of deliberative democracy and challenged them to imagine what they want the future to look like. A second session, held February 27, brought students together virtually to work in breakout groups, where they discussed the problems most important to them and narrowed their focus to one issue each group would tackle for the official presentation in May. From there, staff from Congresswoman Jacobs’ office guided students through the process of translating their ideas into actionable policy themes, drafting summary statements, and polishing their presentation skills.
Article written by a communications team member on behalf of the San Diego Unified School District Strategic Communications and Information Department.