134. Youth Are the Present, Not the Future with Rachel Belin

Why do we need to wait for youth to get involved? They’re here now and are highly capable of being a part of the dialogue and decision-making. This week on the podcast, we’re exploring what that looks like in action from an organization that has been in the trenches for a decade.

 

Rachel Belin, managing partner and co-founder of Kentucky Student Voice Team works alongside youth to help create an intergenerational dynamic, where youth members are involved in raising their voices and helping others do the same. They’re involved in legislative spaces, advocacy, and more with adults as their partners.

 

Listen in this week to find out how legislators and the public have responded to KSVT in action, what ripple effect the organization has created, how it supports students who wouldn’t typically seek out something like KSVT, and so much more.

 

This conversation left me feeling inspired and hopeful.

 

About Rachel Belin:

Rachel Burg Belin (she/her) is the Managing Partner and, with young people, a co-founder of the Kentucky Student Voice Team.

 

She has decades of experience by turns as a social studies teacher, media literacy leader, education policy aide, nonprofit development consultant, and commercial radio news director. In the course of this work, she has spearheaded nine different ventures to amplify and elevate the voices of students in civic discourse. With young people as collaborators, she has been the recipient of the Citizen's and Scholars Civic Spring Award, the Kentucky Nonprofit Network Excellence in Public Policy Award, the Pathway 2 Tomorrow Breakthrough in Education Innovation Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Rachel holds a BA from Harvard University and an MAT from the University of Rochester.

 

Jump in the Conversation: [1:52] - Amplifying the voice of youth [2:45] - The role of adults is not to get out of the way; it’s to build and circulate power [4:40] - Unpacking the word democracy [5:20] - Young people in public schools can and need to play an important role in shaping those institutions [6:25] - Guerrilla social studies: It’s hypocrisy to teach democracy in an autocracy [6:41] - What Kentucky youth have created [10:21] - Response from legislators and public  [14:50] - Young people are part of the present and don’t need to wait until they’re of voting age to get involved [17:02] - Policy at legislative level isn’t everything [18:14] - Roadblocks that have come up in this process [19:15] - You can’t wait for your ducks to be in a row [19:34] - Reaching the hardest to reach students [25:24] - Concrete steps to amplify the voices of students [26:10] - Young people should be in the room where it happens  [27:10] - Turbo Time [29:07] - What people need to know about youth engagement [31:59] - Don’t wait for permission to get involved [33:13] - Rachel’s Magic Wand [34:30] - Maureen’s Takeaways Links & Resources Follow Rachel on Twitter Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn The New Edu - Kentucky Student Voice Team Educated by Tara Westover Email Maureen Maureen’s TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools The Education Evolution Facebook: Follow Education Evolution Twitter: Follow Education Evolution LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution EdActive Collective Maureen’s book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids Micro-school feature on Good Morning America The Micro-School Coalition Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition LEADPrep