Youth Conference

In 2025, the PUSD Student Think Tank (STT) and Student Assembly Council (SAC) held our first annual youth conference, Breaking the Line: Creating a Bridge Between Students and Teachers, at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles. The goal of the conference was to create a platform for students to share their concerns and to invite teachers to participate in the conversations. 

On April 15, 2026, we organized our second annual conference; this year, Pasadena City College (PCC) offered space to us at their Creveling Lounge. Our keynote speaker was Nikki High, the owner and founder of Octavia's Bookshelf and she offered inspiring words, reminding us that we don't have to wait to work toward what we want to achieve. PCC's President, Dr. José Gomez, also welcomed us, and when he saw our purple sweatshirts and tablecloths, he offered to light up PCC's buildings in purple to celebrate our work. Last year's keynote speaker Dr. Tyrone Howard (UCLA Center for Transformation of Schools), who delivered a powerful speech about student empowerment. 

We used our summers to plan both conferences. Though our inaugural conference had to pushed back by a month because of the Eaton fire, we were able to plan during spring 2025. The conference was the first of its type held in Pasadena and hosted by students!

Both years, we hosted panels that teachers and students in attendance could choose from. Some panel topics included “Student Voices in Policy” and “Building Student-Led Support Systems for All.” Students from each high school volunteered in advance to serve as panelists and share their perspectives and attendance was more than 100 students as well as some teachers and a few district administrators, including Superintendent Blanco, who also celebrated our work.