• Students Speak Youth Summit 2023

  • Josue Castellon giving his Keynote speech

  • Students Speak Youth Summit 2023

  • Students Speak Youth Summit 2023

  • Students Speak Youth Summit 2023

Students Speak Youth Summit 2023

On April 18, 2023, 70 students from across the Commonwealth convened at Harvard Law School for the 2nd annual Students Speak Youth Summit, a full day of activities planned and led by youth. The action-packed agenda was focused on developing advocacy skills. The Summit featured keynote addresses aimed at inspiring youth-led advocacy and interactive workshops designed to explore a full range of tools for advocacy and self-discovery.

Participants in the Youth Summit had the opportunity to learn about multiple ways to raise their voices through podcasting, addressing microaggressions, and other advocacy strategies other youth are utilizing as they lead projects in their schools to, for example, address unfair attendance policies.

Keynote Speaker: Josue Castellon

Josue Castellon

Chelsea high school and a youth leader in La Colaborativa’s youth organizing group, RIOT squad.

Josue Castellon is a student at Chelsea high school and a youth leader in La Colaborativa’s youth organizing group, RIOT squad. Over the last three years, Josue has contributed to the Chelsea community in a number of ways, both with La Colaborativa and as a private citizen. Last year he was on the front lines of RIOT squad’s fight for housing justice in Chelsea. This year, he has set his sights on education equity by fighting for change to local education policies and state level legislation. Last year, he was a key player in Judith Garcia’s campaign for state representative, where he is now an intern. On the local level, he joined forces with his class president to overturn Chelsea High School’s disastrous attendance policy, and now continues to fight to improve his school’s bathroom policy, security guard training, and support staff. When Josue isn’t testifying to Chelsea school committee, he is at the state house advocating for equity in vocational school admissions policies to ensure that students from all backgrounds have a fair chance at a great career in the trades.

Keynote Speaker: Marley Dias

Marley Dias

Youth activist and author. She is best known for the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign she launched in 6th grade after seeing the lack of diversity in school books.

Marley Dias is a youth activist and author. She is best known for the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign she launched in 6th grade after seeing the lack of diversity in school books.

​Marley launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks drive in November of 2015, leveraging the power of social media to reach a larger audience. The goal was to collect 1,000 books featuring Black female protagonists by February 2016. The story went viral and was picked up by media outlets around the world as well as bloggers, schools, youth-focused organizations and millions of individuals who wanted to participate in the project. Marley has collected over 13,000 books to-date.

Students Speak Youth Summit 2022

In April 2022, approximately 40 students participated in the first annual Youth Summit at Harvard Law School, at which they designed and led workshops for their peers that imparted important skills and understanding related to youth activism for educational justice.

Workshop topics included understanding systemic racism, responding to microaggressions, using youth participant action research, and improving literacy through hip hop.

The Keynote Speaker was Will Larkins, a 17-year-old student leader, organizer, and activist at Winter Park High School in Florida.

The first annual Youth Summit was held at Harvard Law School in April 2022. Learn More…