Be a Youth Summit Policy Mentor

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 mentoring diverse DC area 8th-12th graders through the Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking (YSYP)?

Then volunteer to be a Policy Mentor!  Learning Life, a Washington DC-based nonprofit working to widen participation in democracy and diplomacy, seeks junior and senior policy mentors to mentor up to 120 8th-12th graders from diverse DMV private, public and charter schools as they go through the Summit policymaking process.

The first YSYP took place on Saturdays, September 27 and October 4, 2025 via Zoom then in person at the DMV Democracy Festival (DemFest), with community connection and information sharing via the DMV Democracy Learning Community on Linkedin before and after those dates.  Details about the Summit at the YSYP link above, and about the Mentor roles below.

YSYP 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 Mentors We Are Looking For

Mentors should:

  1. Reside in the Washington, DC metro region.
  2. Enjoy working with teenagers.
  3. Want to bridge socio-economic divides and nurture youth engagement in policymaking to help strengthen American democracy.
  4. Want to support the growth of the DMV Democracy Learning Community via engagement in YSYP.
  5. Junior policy mentors: Policy graduate students and professionals with less than five years of professional policy experience, preferably interested in policymaking at school, city, county, and/or state government levels.  Graduate students with five or more years of prior professional policymaking experience qualify as senior mentors.
  6. Senior policy mentors: Professionals with at least five years of policymaking experience at school, city, county and/or state government levels, ideally in DC, Maryland or Virginia.  That experience can be in research, government or public-facing advocacy, and/or government policy implementation.
What Policy Mentors Do

The Mentor tasks below are in rough chronological order, and are required unless otherwise noted.

First, complete this survey to register your interest in serving as a mentor.  Optional but encouraged in the survey: fill out those survey parts that allow us to introduce Summit participants and observers to you via a digital poster (see below for example).  We will 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. Required: Join the DMV Democracy Learning Community Linkedin Group to get Summit updates and connect with participating mentors and youth.
  3. Optional but encouraged: Sponsor one or more DMV 8th-12th grader’s participation in the Summit.  $150 per student.  The “sponsor” link is for DemFest fundraising overall, so make sure to note “Sponsoring Summit youth” when you contribute, and thank you!

After the above onboarding steps, as a policy mentor you:

  1. Required: Get to know your mentees, composed of a small group of 5-7 Summit youth.  Each small group will ideally be matched with a senior and junior policy mentor, but at least one mentor.  These small groups are intended to build connection among diverse students and their mentors, help prepare the youth for the Summit, and maintain connection beyond the Summit via the DMV Democracy Learning Community.  You may get to know each other via social media, online and/or in-person meetings, as you, the mentor, choose.
  2. Optional but encouraged: Present to our Summit students on your experience and knowledge as a policy professional as part of a panel of speakers via Zoom.  Learning Life will organize four of these online panel discussions every other month in February to August 2026.   
  3. Optional but encouraged: Serve as a commentator, helping inform discussion of speaker presentations, on Summit Day 1 via Zoom over two hours on a Saturday in September or October 2026.   
  4. Required: Guide students in their policymaking deliberations over 2.5 hours during Summit Day 2 on a Saturday in September or October 2026. 
  5. Optional: Attend school, government or community meetings in person or online following YSYP to support motivated Summit students who will (a) help testify to the Summit’s impact, and (b) advocate for youth engagement in government policymaking that affects them.

The total estimated time commitment is 2-3 hours per month, with hours varying depending on your participation in optional activities and time with your mentees.