The bootcamp offered participants a chance to deepen their organizing skills, build strategic plans for the year ahead, and connect with peers committed to defending their campuses and communities. Throughout the day, students reflected on the escalating attacks facing young people and affirmed their shared power to respond collectively.
Featured Speakers & Movement Leaders
Participants heard from a lineup of national leaders and frontline organizers, including Representative Jamie Raskin (MD‑8), Robert Weissman (Co‑President of Public Citizen), Mohsen Mahdawi (Columbia student organizer), Barbara Arnwine (President of the Transformative Justice Coalition). Each speaker underscored the central role students have historically played in resisting autocracy and advancing civil rights; and why today’s youth‑led organizing is essential to protecting democracy.
Workshops & Skill Building Sessions
Students participated in hands‑on workshops covering core organizing competencies, including:
Lessons from past student movements: grounding today’s work in decades of youth‑led resistance | Turning apathy into action (with Rising Organizers): practical base‑building strategies | Coalition building on campus: strengthening cross‑group collaboration | Organizing across differences | one of last year’s top‑rated sessions, led by Jim Bowey | Action & campaign communications: multimedia, press, social strategy, and photo documentation | Using FOIA for accountability (with Jasmine Banks, Generation Common Good) | Campaign planning | goal‑setting, power analysis, escalation, and mapping.
A Growing Youth Movement
The bootcamp reinforced a central truth: young people have repeatedly shown they can organize and win; whether pushing universities to reject loyalty oaths, mobilizing against ICE, or driving national turnout on May Day. Saturday’s training expanded that power, equipping students with the tools, networks, and confidence needed to confront the next wave of threats to their schools and democracy.
