Rural Students Spent a Powerful Week in Washington, D.C.

RAZE Leader students from Yuma and Pinal Counties traveled to connect local issues to national conversations as part of their Civic Engagement Experience

Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE) created a powerful experience in Washington, D.C. for rural students from Pinal and Yuma Counties, giving them a chance to connect hyper-local issues to national conversations. RAZE Leaders is a youth program built to support and empower civic engagement for young people in rural towns across Arizona. The goal has always been to give students a space to advocate for the change they want to see in their own communities.

Traveling to Washington became the culmination of that work for students who have spent multiple cohorts in the RAZE Leaders program, giving them a chance to put their leadership skills to use in the nation's capital. This June, a delegation of young rural leaders traveled to Washington, D.C. to experience the capital firsthand, connect with congressional leaders and elected officials, as well as a chance to walk through the history that shapes the country they're organizing to change.

The five day trip put students face to face with the offices that represent them. The delegation met with the Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, Senator Mark Kelly, and the Office of Congressman Juan Ciscomani, carrying their communities' concerns straight into the halls where policy gets made.

This experience empowered students to advocate and speak up about issues impacting their towns, ranging from public transportation access to immigration and mental health.

"To me, being a RAZE Leader means wanting to make a change in your community," shared Isabella, a rural student from the Yuma County RAZE Leaders cohort.

"We spoke with Adelita Grijalva, who is the representative of Yuma County. I spoke with her regarding the border," shared Isabella. "Other students from my community spoke about public transportation."

Between meetings, they toured the U.S. Capitol, walked through the Library of Congress, and stood in front of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights at the National Archives, the founding documents behind every right they organize to protect.

The trip made room for history and reflection too. Students walked the National Mall past the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and spent an afternoon at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. For students who spend most of their advocacy work in small rural towns, standing in the middle of that history was its own kind of civic education, a reminder that the fight for change has always run through people who refused to wait their turn.

The RAZE Leaders program was created as a way for rural Arizonans to get involved in their communities earlier, before waiting for someone else to speak for them.

"We knew, when RAZE became a reality, that it was going to be the young people who would be leading our communities," shared Natali Fierros, Executive Director for RAZE.

"Sending them to D.C. was a dream come true. Being able to open the doors to national conversations and leaders was going to be a way to help our students dream of the solutions they can bring to their towns."

For 15 rural students, this trip was proof that a small town on the I-8 Corridor or in Pinal County has just as much claim to the conversation happening under the Capitol dome as anywhere else in the country. They came home with a clearer sense of how their voices fit into that conversation, and with the confidence to keep raising them.

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