September 17–24, 2024
How can young people engage in political action and influence elections? The 2024 National Youth Summit on Elections & Politics will explore questions of representation, power, and accountability to examine how young people have boldly driven change in our democracy. The live virtual summit will feature guest speakers including teens, scholars, and organizational leaders and offer ideas for students to consider how they will develop their civic identities to inspire our shared future.
Registration is now live! Participants will be able to digitally access this year's case study on Rosie Head, directions on how to join the opening and closing programs, and supplemental learning resources.
Join us for two live programs:
Opening program: September 17 at 1pm, ET
Closing program: September 24 at 1pm, ET
Central Questions
- How can young people engage in political action and influence elections?
Speakers
Alex Edgar is a 21-year-old UC Berkeley graduate reimagining America’s approach to civic and Gen-Z engagement. He works to change systems to better serve younger audiences through his roles as Youth Engagement Manager for Made By Us, Civic Engagement Lead for the Youth Power Project, and the youngest member of the US Census Bureau’s 2030 Census Advisory Committee. As Youth Engagement Manager at Made By Us, Alex leads the national nonprofit’s federal grant-funded Youth250 campaign, developing programming and outreach in preparation for the launch of their National Youth Bureau, an advisory group made up of 100 paid 18 to 30 year old advisors. These youth advisors will consult with museums, nonprofits, and corporations as they find ways to center young people in commemorating America’s 250th anniversary.
Sydney Fahn is a sophomore at Georgetown in the School of Foreign Service studying International Politics and Economics. She is originally from New York, NY. Sydney has been with New Voters for over 3 years, joining as a freshman in high school and ultimately serving as their youngest Director of Operations, where she coordinated registration drives at hundreds of high schools across the country. She has now spent a year and a half helping found and lead the New Voters Research Network, where she manages a team of research assistants and coordinates academic and organizational partnerships.
Lisa Kathleen Graddy is a curator of American political history, reform movements, and women’s history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She is the curator of the museum’s popular ongoing exhibition, “The First Ladies.” Graddy’s recent work includes the exhibitions Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage and the voting rights section of the exhibition, American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith. She is co-author of The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection (Smithsonian Books, 2014), American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith (Smithsonian Books, 2017), and Smithsonian American Women (Smithsonian Books, 2019). Graddy’s work and research centers on the ways that Americans, particularly women, have found a public voice and wielded political power through organizing, participating in, and building institutions such as reform movements, voting rights movements, suffrage organizations, and political parties.
Kahlil Greene, also known as the “Gen-Z Historian”, is a 2x Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award-winning, and New York Times, WSJ, and Forbes Magazine recognized digital educator with over 800,000 followers and 50mm views across his TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles. He has authored op-eds about Gen Z and social impact in the Washington Post, LA Times, and Harvard Business Review. Kahlil also graduated from Yale with a degree in History and served as the college’s first-ever Black student body president. Kahlil is now a full-time, self-employed speaker, influencer, and educator and is known for his TikTok series, Hidden History–which dives into stories of American injustice–and for his commentary about politics and culture. Throughout his nascent career, Kahlil has already worked with organizations like Meta, the Smithsonian, and the White House. He is a correspondent on Nickelodeon’s revival of the critically acclaimed Nick News series, and is currently producing a historical docuseries on National Geographic. Kahlil’s main goal is to share knowledge about history, culture, and politics from a new, engaging perspective and to make young people more informed on the world around them.
Anthea M. Hartig is the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the first woman to hold the position since the museum opened in 1964. Hartig oversees 216 employees, a budget over $48 million, and a collection that includes 1.8 million objects and more than three shelf-miles of archives. She officially began her tenure on February 18, 2019.
Currently, Hartig is leading a vibrant new strategic plan to take the museum through the 250th of the United States in 2026 and beyond. It challenges the museum to be the most accessible, inclusive, relevant and sustainable public history institution. The Museum’s mission of empowering people to create a more just and compassionate future by preserving, sharing, and interpreting the complex history of the United States motivates and humbles her daily in serving two million visitors at the Museum on the National Mall (projected 2024) and over 10 million guests online (2022-2023).
Caroline Klibanoff is the Executive Director of Made By Us, a New America US250 Fellow, an Eisenhower USA 2024 Fellow, and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution. Under her direction, since its launch in 2019, Made By Us has grown into a nationwide network of 400 historic sites and museums joining forces to engage young adults — the “founders” of tomorrow — with credible, multi-perspective history and civics information, informing and inspiring millions. Through award-winning content, programs, youth leadership, and an annual “Civic Season” held from Juneteenth to July 4th since 2021, Made By Us cultivates Gen Z’s belonging and connection to U.S. history and their role in shaping it.
Jahnavi Rao is the President and Founder of the 501(c)3 New Voters, which she founded as a junior at her high school in Pennsylvania. She has directly led over 200 directors and interns and under her leadership, New Voters has grown to civically engage over 80,000 high school students across 300+ high schools in 39 states. She also serves as the Director and Founder of the New Voters Research Network, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland. Jahnavi graduated from Harvard College in May 2023, majoring in Government with a minor in Music.
Special Thanks
We are grateful for the 2023—2024 Youth Leadership Team for their contributions in planning this year's National Youth Summit. This is the first year that the Summit was developed for teens, by teens.
- Arab American National Museum: Nour, Khadeja, and Khloud
- Japanese American National Museum: Elianna, Emily, and Sophie K.
- International Museum of Art & Science: Audrey, Carina, and Rudy
- The Rockwell Museum: Grehyson, Luciana, and Sophie G.
About the National Youth Summit
The National Youth Summit brings middle and high school students together with scholars, teachers, policy experts, and activists in a national conversation about important events in America's past that have relevance to the nation's present and future.
The National Youth Summit is made possible by the A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation and the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation K–12 Learning Endowment. The summit’s Youth Leadership Team is supported by Youth Access Grant funds from the Smithsonian’s Together We Thrive initiative.