The Research Alliance is recruiting NYC high school students to join our inaugural Youth Advisory Council (YAC). We are looking for students who are passionate about advancing equity and excellence in NYC public schools and who have an interest in education research. The YAC will equip youth with leadership and data literacy skills that will support their development as scholars and advocates in their schools and communities.
The YAC will serve as a key source of youth voice at the Research Alliance, helping us to set research priorities, develop studies, and interpret findings. Grounded in our mission and the goal of generating rigorous, actionable evidence, the YAC will work with the Research Alliance to amplify student perspectives, ensuring that education studies benefit NYC students directly.
YAC members will have a voice in shaping the structure of the YAC itself, including the types of opportunities and support they’d like to see offered. YAC members will also have opportunities to get support from Research Alliance staff on a research project investigating an education-related topic of their choosing using open-source data.
Membership & Responsibilities
- Applicants should be currently enrolled in a NYC public high school
- Once accepted, YAC members can participate in the YAC until their high school graduation
- Members will have opportunities to take on leadership roles (e.g., YAC Chair) in subsequent semesters
- Membership is a voluntary, unpaid commitment
Monthly meetings will be held over Zoom between January and June. These meetings will consist of feedback on Research Alliance findings, workshops on the YAC’s topics of choice (e.g., data literacy, open-source data usage), and support sessions for independent research projects. The final in-person summer meeting will include an optional opportunity for YAC members to pitch their research projects to the Research Alliance for further development.
The application is now open! The process includes submitting responses to four short open-ended questions and requests for applicants to select a mentor to complete a multiple-choice recommendation form.
The deadline to submit applications is Sunday, December 7th, at 11:59 PM.
Applicants will be notified in the following weeks if they have moved to the interview round. The application portal will open again in the summer of 2026.
Submit an application now!
The Research Alliance’s capacity to engage stakeholders in our work is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Foundation, New York University, the Wallace Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation.