National Youth Summit

The National Youth Summit is run by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Each year it brings middle and high school students together with scholars, teachers, policy experts, and activists in a national conversation about important events in America’s past that have relevance to the nation’s present and future. The overall theme of the summit varies from year to year.

The 2023 National Youth Summit is the National Youth Summit on Democracy Throughout the 2022–2023 school year, a new case study accompanied by a program will be released every other month. The series will culminate in a teach-in event in April 2023. Each case study uses museum objects and artifacts, addresses a supporting question, and includes teacher- and student-facing materials. Each release will be accompanied by a webinar that introduces the case study, will air live for active participation, and will be recorded for asynchronous use.

Past summit topics include: 
- National Youth Summit on Gender Equity. The 2021 summit examined issues of gender, bias, and equity. Four case studies were designed to prompt students to think about gender–how it is constructed and how it has impacted communities and individuals in different times and places throughout U.S. history. History was the guide as students unpacked the central questions and envisioned their own answers to what the future of gender equity will look like.

- National Youth Summit on Teen Resistance to Systemic Racism. In 2020, a live panel discussion was held, connecting stories of teenagers in the past fighting to address systemic injustice to those of the present. This 2020 youth summit was centered on the case study of Claudette Colvin—a 15-year-old Black student in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Colvin refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus and testified in the legal case that brought an end to segregated busing in Montgomery.

For more information about how to attend the National Youth Summit, Click here.