In this brief, we share themes from 36 interviews with 25 youth organizing participants who completed high school during the study. All but one participant enrolled directly in college. These findings highlight young people’s reflections about the skills and dispositions they honed through organizing, and how they use those skills to navigate college.

The table below describes the alumni sample whose interview data is reflected in this brief. Most of the young people represented here were interviewed in high school as active YO participants and again in their first, second, or both years of college; a few were enrolled in college when the study began. As college students, most were no longer actively engaged with their YO group’s campaign work, but nearly all kept in touch with staff and participants through social media, phone calls, and in-person visits during breaks. A smaller number who attended college close to their home communities remained actively involved as members, and four were employed as paid organizers while attending college. The majority were firstgeneration college students from low-income or working-class families, and several were undocumented. Approximately 70% of YO participants in the larger study identified as female; our alumni sample includes just four men and 21 women.

A note about COVID: The study timeline meant that many alumni interviews took place during the early months of the pandemic, when nearly all alumni were at home completing coursework remotely. Though all had spent at least a semester in in-person classes and shared reflections about both their pre-COVID and mid-COVID college experiences, some responses were no doubt affected by the disruptions and trauma caused by the pandemic. (Interestingly, a number of alumni we interviewed took advantage of the shift to online YO meetings to formally or informally rejoin their YO groups and participate in campaigns in ways that wouldn’t be possible in normal circumstances.)

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