The Power² Summit made its long-awaited return on Tuesday, May 5th with 175 youth and adult attendees participating from UP teams across Vermont. This year’s Power² Summit, the first in person Summit since 2020, built on a legacy of elevating student voice, amplifying the power of youth-adult partnership, and imagining the next steps in education together. With the day’s theme of Collective Action, Collective Impact, Collective Joy, Repeat, we explored what we can do, together, when our power is exponentially multiplied.
The day started off with a panel of six experts (photo below): Barakit Gyi, an UP Youth Intern from Winooski School District; Cashel Higgins, a student from Harwood Unified Union School District and the Director of Fundraising for the Vermont Learners Association; Lily-Jean French, an UP Youth Intern from Lamoille Union High School; Amy Brewer, Northwestern Medical Center Health Educator & Coordinator of the Franklin Grand Isle Tobacco Prevention Coalition; Michael Clark, Superintendent of Orange Southwest Supervisory District; and Evelyn Monje, Thrive Program Director and UP Board Member. They had a fantastic discussion about their experience in the center of changework and the role of youth-adult partnership, joy, and equity in moving forward.
The main feature of the Power² Summit were the workshops from eight independently successful changemaking UP teams. Below, get a taste of their incredible presentations!
School Policy Breakdown – From Students, for Everyone presented by the Vermont’s Learners Association
This session was built on one core belief: nothing about us without us. Led by student leaders from the Vermont Learners’ Association, this workshop broke down the education policies shaping Vermont schools and equipped attendees with real tools to get involved. Through hands-on activities like affinity mapping and drafting a letter to legislators, participants explored what’s most urgent in the coming biennium and how to take action. The presenters provided this resource for anybody who attended or didn’t attend the workshop to use for their next steps.
Understanding and Responding to Microaggressions through Advisory Activities presented by Vergennes Union Middle School
The Vergennes Union Middle School Getting to ‘Y’ group presented advisory activities focused on understanding what microaggressions are and simple ways we can address them in our school communities. These collaborative activities are designed for small group discussion on the ways that bias and stereotyping can impact individuals and communities, and how to address them together. The presentation was a fan-favorite and involved the use of lemons to demonstrate how stereotyping works. By the end of the day, even a few outside of the workshop received a lemon gift to remind them of the message.
Social Justice Block Party presented by Lamoille Union High and Middle School
This workshop featured the Social Justice Block party, an activity that combines learning important vocabulary with a fun game. The group explored various terms using a “snowball” style method in which you lightly toss balls of paper at each other to learn as many terms as possible in the given time frame. After time was up, they defined all of the terms as a group and discussed what they learned.
As experts in running this activity back in their school, the Lamoille team was able to guide their participants’ learning around its purpose, utility, and importance; what a valuable tool to have!
Creating a Vision of Future Facing Education in Vermont presented by Orange Southwest SU, Montpelier Roxbury School District and White River Valley SU
This project initially brought together people from three different school districts in the central VT region. The initiative was designed to ensure that any future decisions, voluntary or state-directed, are informed by what students and communities actually want and need. This group collected data from their schools and created a shared vision for future-facing education that was then presented to the House and Senate Education Committees and the Vermont Agency of Education’s Secretary of Education and Chief Academic Officer. At this workshop, the goal was to add even more voice to the conversation before presenting their findings to the Vermont Superintendents Association, Vermont Curriculum Leaders Association and the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators at their annual conference.
Student Voice in Action: From Feedback to District Change presented by BFA St. Albans Student Voice Committee
The Bellows Free Academy Student Voice Committee (SVC) offered a deep dive into how they bridge the gap between students and the school board. With multiple youth experts and a couple of adults too, they spent time breaking down their structure, their secrets to gathering feedback, and how they turn student stories into district-wide change.
Decentering Doubt in Data: How to Engage Skeptics in Community Data Analysis presented by Stafford Technical Center
Time and buy-in are often lacking resources for a lot of groups that want to take collective action or make an impact—especially in schools. Over the spring, this team has been facilitating data seminars about the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for classes and youth clubs that are not familiar with UP’s work to amplify youth voice and explore equity on a deep level. Three talented facilitators from Stafford Technical Center walked participants through the facilitation of two YRBS Seminar activities: the YRBS Scale Activity and Root Cause Analysis, within the framing of a quick, single touchpoint event and share the skills they have had to acquire to start real, authentic conversations about important issues in a small and specific timeframe. The goal was to teach participants how to inspire their groups into considering the relationships between experience and data, bias and objectivity, so that they can have open and authentic conversations about unsafe habits and why they exist.
The Power of Sanctuary Schools presented by Winooski School District Anti-Racism Steering Committee
During a time when students are facing uncertainty and fear because of immigration policies and the federal administration, Winooski stepped up by passing a policy to become the first sanctuary school district in Vermont. This policy restricts federal immigration law enforcement from accessing district property affirming the Winooski School District’s commitment to providing education and a safe learning environment for everyone, regardless of immigration status. In this workshop, current Winooski students shared insights on why a sanctuary district matters and what it means to them. This was a safe space to reflect and share stories on how the current administration affects one’s community. Participants had the opportunity to learn about advocacy, protecting their rights, and youth organizing.
Portrait of a Graduate Capstone Project presented by Lamoille South Supervisory Union
Members of the LSSU Student Advisory Council (SAC) led this workshop exploring their journey from research to board-adopted policy. They shared the strategies they used to engage 2,000 community members and the specific roadmap that turned our “Portrait of a Graduate” into a reality. Participants interacted with their research tools and explored their model for student-led capstone projects.
In between sessions, participants engaged in multiple opportunities. One was the collective art project, facilitated by Lise-Anne from Remarket in St. Albans, VT, who generously donated her day to putting together this memento of our time together. Participants were invited to draw self-portraits on a communal sheet of paper. The final product represented an expansive, collective representation of the leaders pushing our mission forward everyday.
If not for our amazing youth organizing committee and UP’s youth and adult teams – past and current, this day would not have been nearly as impactful, or even possible! The continuous work they do for their school communities makes the change they talk about happen. They embody the theme of Collective Action, Collective Impact, Collective Joy, Repeat, in every way!
Next year, join us for the next annual Power² Summit on April 13, 2027 at Main Street Landing. We’re sure to have more for you to explore and contribute as we define what it means to reimagine and transform education, and the world, together.
