In November, Student Voice announced plans for a nationwide tour at the White House Summit on Next Generation High Schools. The tour is first bringing Student Voice to Philadelphia, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina to connect with students. Led by UNC student and National Field Director, Andrew Brennen, the tour will shadow the 2016 presidential campaign trail. “The goal of our tour is to inspire and engage students of all ages to be more active agents in their own learning,” Brennen shares. “Students spend at least 35 hours per week in a classroom and therefore have much insight to offer on what is and is not working. We want to unleash this expertise so that everyone, most especially young people themselves, sees students as critical and creative consumers of their own education.”

Each stop of the tour will create space for students to, often for the first time, think critically about their schools. Students will vote on the Student Bill of Rights, participate in Student voice roundtable sessions, and strategize ways that they can insert themselves as stakeholders in their education.

Zak Malamed, Executive Director of Student Voice, shared, “the best way to engage students and learn from them is to meet them where they are. So, through the Student Voice Tour, that is exactly what we are going to do.”

Student Voice plans to reach at least 10,000 students from all 50 states through the Student Bill of Rights voting platform through the tour. The aim of the tour is to collect nationwide year-toyear data analysis of student perspectives on what’s most important to them in their education as well as documenting how students are driving school improvement across the country through the SBoR.

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