Student Sacramento Trip

Student Advocacy Program

IUCPTA organizes a Sacramento trip for IUSD high school juniors and seniors. Each We are happy to announce that the 2021-2022 Student Advocacy Trip will be March 16, 2022. With the changing trends of the Omicron variant, we are cautiously optimistic that the trip will be held in person at the Capitol this year.

The 2021 Sacramento Student Advocacy Program Trip

The Sacramento Student Advocacy Program sponsored by IUCPTA is an educational program for IUSD high school juniors and seniors. These students are selected by their high schools through an application process. During this program, students explored issues that impact IUSD, formed their own views, and met with state lawmakers and staffers to express their ideas regarding public education. After more than a month of preparation and meetings with Terry Walker (IUSD Superintendent), the IUSD executive team, as well as the IUSD Board of Education, the selected students traveled virtually to Sacramento on March 8th and 9th to meet with the California Legislators. During their two days of meetings, the students met with Erika Hoffman (Legislative Advocate – California School Boards Association), Kevin Gordon (President of Capitol Advisors Group), State Senator Dave Min (D-37), Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-74), and Assemblyman Steven Choi (R-68) to discuss various topics including mental health, social justice and diversity, the impact of Covid-19, learning loss, school funding, and more. The students were also given the option of attending a Senate Education Committee meeting in which two of the students chose to participate and make comments during the public comment period. Lastly, the students had the opportunity to connect with members of the Legislative Analyst’s office in a smaller group for more intimate discussions on topics related to Public Education. Some of the comments made by the LAO representative after the meeting were:

“Thank you! I feel 1000x better after interacting with such amazing students!” “Always a good time and so refreshing to listen to students’ perspectives.” “It was very enjoyable and I learned a lot!” “The IUSD students are rock stars!”

These students represented the district with the utmost professionalism and erudition.

Past Sacramento Student Advocacy Program Trips

Articles about the Trip:

Portola High’s Pilot here, and a video clip.
Northwood High’s The Howler here.
University High’s Sword and Shield here.
Woodbridge High’s Golden Arrow here.
San Joaquin Monthly Journal here.
The OC Register(2017) here.
The OC Register (2016) here.
Click here to watch a short 3 minutes video to learn about the Sacramento Trip.

Mr Resendez, Portola High School working with the Sacramento Advocacy students

Please contact advocacy@iucpta.org for more information.