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Students from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia Honored for Creating Youth Think Tank

by Bill of Rights Institute on

Students Arthur Hu, Caleb Kurlantzick, and Saniya Yamin wanted to find a way for young people to have their voices heard in policymaking. 

Now, they have been awarded the $7,500 first prize in the Bill of Rights Institute’s MyImpact Challenge for founding PIVOT: Policy Insights and Voices of Tomorrow, a nonpartisan youth-led think tank designed to amplify youth voices in public policy. 

The Bill of Rights Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that teaches civics and history through market-leading curricula and educational programs for teachers and students. 

Through its MyImpact Challenge civic engagement contest, the Bill of Rights Institute encourages students to develop community service projects that advance constitutional principles like liberty, equality, and justice. This year, more than 400 students across America participated in the contest.  

Hu, Kurlantzick, and Yamin created PIVOT to provide a platform for youth to share their ideas with peers and community leaders and connect directly with legislators.  

PIVOT operates internationally through two branches —PIVOT Voices and PIVOT Fellowship. PIVOT Voices is a forum for young people to share news and write about issues they are passionate about, while receiving support for editing and publishing articles.  

PIVOT Fellowship connects young people to organizations in sectors like the environment, education, economics, civil rights, and public health, and helps them to develop policy briefs, meet with legislators and experts to discuss issues, and launch civic projects. 

“Civic engagement is often taught as a future goal rather than a present responsibility,” Hu, Kurlantzick, and Yamin said in their MyImpact Challenge essay. “Through its programs, its partnerships, and its unwavering commitment to democratic values, PIVOT offers students the space to grow as thinkers, the skills to act as advocates, and the responsibility to serve as stewards of the civic institutions that sustain us all.” 

David Bobb, President and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute, said the MyImpact Challenge helps students nationwide apply civic knowledge and citizenship skills in their everyday lives.  

“Civic education is about teaching young people to put principles into practice,” Bobb said. “MyImpact Challenge gives students a chance to work within their communities to solve real problems and create opportunities for their fellow citizens.”