Last week, 11th grade students and staff stepped outside the classroom for the Denver Youth Advocacy trip. In collaboration with the Colorado League of Charter School, Juniors joined other charter students from across the state for a week of experiential learning and civic engagement.

Juniors learned about real world careers through three site visits. Students visited Conservation Colorado, New Era Colorado, and Vederra Modular Housing. 

Students at Conservation Colorado gained an understanding of how a bill becomes a law through a lesson with company representatives. “It gave me a sense of optimism that I got to hear about how conservation policies are affecting us on a state level,” Junior Bennett Esterday explained. 

 With New Era, students learned the difference between lobbying and advocacy, what New Era does with the capitol, and had a political workshop. “There was a storytelling activity, where we worked on how important it is to be a storyteller while lobbying politically,” 11th grader Mckenzie Albright said.  

The group at Vederra Modular toured their warehouse, learning about the process of modular house building and how it differs from a traditional construction site. Afterwards, they had a short lesson on the history of the company, and how it can influence the construction industry in the future. Junior Lucas Bayer mentioned “It was really cool to see how future housing can be made really efficiently and effectively.” 

At the History Colorado Center, 11th graders took a scavenger hunt tour, exploring exhibits to understand Colorado’s history. Riva Roy-Ehri talks about the impact of the museum, saying “There were pieces of evidence from throughout history, and it was really cool because there were some from way back, Westerners, and then some from current times. They all had awesome blurbs and stories with them.” 

On their final day of the trip, students visited the Colorado State Capitol with the League of Charter Schools. This visit was intended for students to gain experience advocating to leaders about real world issues. “It was really nice to see the house minority leader and the majority leader with their arms around each other. It makes you realize that a lot of politics is not as polarizing as we might think, which was refreshing for me to see, and educational for the students,” staff leader Sarah Brown said. Groups of 11th graders presented bills they were passionate about with representatives at the Capitol as a form of political lobbying. 11th grader, Kalli Bane spoke on the importance of her time at the Capitol “I talked to James Coleman, a state senator. I felt very honored to be speaking to someone that could help me feel like I could do anything that I put my mind to. I now have an opportunity to do my internship with him, and it was really awesome to speak with people of color in a political setting.” 

After advocating at the Capitol, the 11th grade walked around 16th Street Mall. Students had time to be independent, socialize, shop, and eat while exploring a part of the city. In the evenings of this trip, juniors went back to their houses with their pod, cooked in small groups, reflected on the day, and had time to hang out. Junior Cooper Manganaro reflected on his experience, “I had a great time spending time with some of the classmates I hadn’t had a chance to get to know, as well as some of my closer friends. It was a really cool experience for me.”

A huge congratulations to Lacy Ruggiero and Zoe Boespflug for winning Best Quill Feature at the 2026 Spring Film Festival for their documentary “Road Trip to Democracy.” The film captures the junior class youth advocacy trip to Denver earlier this semester and the beautiful learning the students took away from it.

Many thanks to all of the teachers and parent chaperones that made this trip possible, and endless gratitude to all of the legislators and community partners that made the civics lessons come to life for the juniors! @katieforcolorado @sensimpsonco @colemanforcolorado @cocharterschools @neweracolorado @vederramodular @conservationcolorado @historycolorado @costatecapitol