Be a Youth Summit Policy Advisor

Do you live in the Washington DC area, and have experience in the policymaking process at school, city, county, and/or state government levels?

Want to help strengthen the future of American democracy by advising diverse DC area 8th-12th graders as part of the Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking (YS)?

Then volunteer to be a Policy Advisor!  Learning Life, a Washington DC-based nonprofit working to widen participation in democracy and diplomacy, seeks experienced policy professionals to advise 8th-12th graders from diverse DMV private, public and charter schools as they go through the Summit policymaking process.

The first Summit took place on Saturdays, September 27 and October 4, 2025 via Zoom then in person at the DMV Democracy Festival (DemFest) in DC.  You can read the 2025 Summit’s impact report.  Details about the Summit at the YS link above, and about the Policy Advisor role below.

YS is a project of Learning Life’s DMV Democracy Learning Community (DLC), an association of DC area individuals and organizations working to make democracy more fun and inclusive by developing social events, products, services and spaces that entertain and nurture learning, networking, collaboration and wider, deeper citizen participation.

The Advisors We Are Looking For

Policy Advisors should:

  1. Reside in the Washington, DC metro region.
  2. Have at least five years of full-time, paid, policy experience at school, city, county and/or state government levels, ideally in DC, Maryland or Virginia.  That experience can be in research, advocacy/lobbying, policy formulation, and/or implementation, though preference is for professionals with present or past experience in policy formulation at school, city, county and/or state government levels.
  3. Want to bridge socio-economic divides and nurture youth engagement in policymaking to help strengthen American democracy.
What Policy Advisors Do

The Advisor tasks below are in rough chronological order.

First, complete this survey to register your interest in serving as a YS Policy Advisor.  Optional but encouraged in the survey: fill out those survey parts that allow us to introduce Summit students, advisors and mentors via digital posters (see the photo collage below for examples).

We will then get back to you promptly if we decide you are a good fit.  If you are a good fit, then take these three onboarding steps:

  1. Required: Zoom meeting with Learning Life’s Director, Paul Lachelier, to go over summit details, and answer any questions.  Paul will email you to schedule that meeting.
  2. Optional but encouraged: Join the DMV Democracy Learning Community Linkedin Group to get Summit updates and connect with participating fellow policy advisors, mentors, and youth.
  3. Optional but encouraged: Sponsor one or more DMV 8th-12th grader’s participation in the Summit.  $200 per student, but you can co-sponsor starting at $100.  At the donation link, make sure to note “Youth Summit sponsor” when you contribute, and thank you!

After the above onboarding steps, as a Policy Advisor you contribute to the following Summit activities.  Note that you can volunteer as both a Policy Advisor and Policy Mentor, in which case you would attend one of the first two Saturdays, and the third/final Saturday.

  1. Required: On Saturday, September 26 OR October 3, 2026, 1-3pm, via Zoom, lead or co-lead an introduction for 8th-12th graders to government policymaking.  September 26: school and city government policymaking.  October 3: county and state policymaking.  Each Saturday, we aim to have four Policy Advisors speak, two at each level of government, and each working in different governments to give our young deliberators wider perspective.  Each Policy Advisor will have 15 minutes to present, following by discussion.
  2. Optional: On Saturday, October 10 (Summit Day!), 2-5pm, you can assist the Policy Mentors as they guide their teams of student deliberators through their policymaking deliberations in small and large groups, then student voting on all the teams’ proposals.
  3. Optional: Beyond YS, when you can during the year, help testify about the Summit alongside Learning Life staff and/or Summit students at school, government and community meetings in person or online to spur the Summits’ growth, and advocate for youth engagement in government policymaking.

The total time commitment for Policy Advisors is 2 to 7 hours in September and/or October, with hours varying depending on your participation in optional activities above.