Elevating Student Voices
Student Led. Student Centered.
Building students' voice, agency, and a sense of belonging...one conversation at a time
The Conference
Working with others to address shared concerns is a fundamental responsibility of citizens in a democratic republic. With curiosity and open-mindedness, high school students across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic boundaries develop a shared understanding of issues that affect them and co-create possible solutions.
The Conference, held on the campus of Wayne State University, brings together students from different high schools around Michigan to:
- Grow and strengthen the skills of responsible citizenship
- Develop social skills thwarted by COVID and our fractured politics
- Participate in practices and processes that build voice, agency, and sense of belonging to address a shared concern
- Engage in collective problem solving using multiple perspectives
- Communicate effectively with others
- Decide on responsible pathways that affect themselves and others
At the Conference students engage in a series of democratic processes and structures on issues they care about and identify prior to the conference.
In small groups they engage in story-telling about being a teenager in their present context, engage in conversations about controversial issues they had identified as important to them, and deliberate about what should be done to improve education for them and future generations.
Each small group breakout is followed by a plenary session in which students share their ideas with the whole group.
“As a general idea of democracy, people who are being governed should have some say in the governance or the rules that are placed upon society. If you give the students a mission and let them run with it, a little slack, they can build something as beautiful as this conference.” -- Student from the 2023 Elevating Student Voices Conference
Past Conference Takeaways
As students processed the effects of COVID together, they were able to see more clearly the negative impact on their ability to focus and their ability to interact with others.
- Engaging in structured conversations around controversial issues that matter to students was an empowering and intrinsically motivating experience.
- Students evinced a growing understanding of the power of collective problem solving involved in deliberative dialogue.
- Students’ sense of voice, agency, and belonging grew as a result of the conference.
- The experience increased students’ belief in the importance of voting.
- Students want to be involved in helping to chart their own and their collective futures.
- Providing students with an experience to lead and run with their natural curiosity proved life-changing for some and impactful for all.
“Students are going to be the ones making the changes in the future. We are the ones growing and in it right now. You have adults deciding what the students are doing but without listening to the students you don’t really know what the students want.” -- Student from the 2024 Elevating Student Voices Conference
Our Partners
Bentley High School
Chandler Park Academy
Mumford High School
The School at Marygrove
West Bloomfield High School
Amy Bloom
Research Scholar in Deliberative Democracy, Center for the Study of Citizenship, Wayne State University
Kelly Carey
Curriculum Production Consultant, Oakland Schools
Julie McDaniel-Muldoon
Social Media Director, International Bullying Prevention Association
Michael Steinbeck
Executive Director, Detroit CARES Mentoring Movement