Youth Programs (2025-26)

Youth Corps

Secondary school-aged and college students are encouraged to join local leagues and participate in the interleague Westchester Youth Corps, led this year by Maya Barmecha and Eliza Fink.

Previous years’ activities included the creation of public service announcements and calls to action explaining why voter engagement and civic participation should be routine and why voting matters for the next generation.

Running & Winning

Thursday, April 16, 2026
8:30am-2:00pm
Manhattanville University, Reid Castle

LWVW hosts an annual, unique one-day workshop to bring together female-identifying high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors from high schools across Westchester County for an active and interactive political experience. The program is designed to support students’ aspirations to seek public office, develop their leadership potential, and, increase gender parity in government institutions. The event offers opportunities to learn from elected officials’ experiences and practical application. Attendees may also register or pre-register to vote on site.

At last year’s event:

• A panel consisting of a representative sampling of elected officials from various municipalities responded to questions posed by the students.
• All of the legislators in attendance rotated among tables of students for small group interviews and frank conversation.
• Working in small teams, students created a mock campaign, choosing an issue, candidate, campaign manager, speechwriter, fundraiser, and PR director. mock campaign, choosing an issue, candidate, campaign manager, speechwriter, fundraiser, and public relations director to present with a slogan and fundraising idea.
• Teams presented their campaigns, including their slogans and fundraising ideas. Half of the student campaigns focused on creating a community center for immigrants with resources to help support people new to our country and communities and the other half focused on mental health support for youth and the community at large.

At this year’s event, a record-breaking 84 students registered to attend, representing 26 high schools across Westchester County. All but one of those schools were public and 37 students came from the nine high schools in Yonkers School District. 26 elected officials also RSVP’d to attend. Although state representatives were unable to participate because the Legislature was still in budget negotiations, the program included representatives from the following local governments:

• Westchester County Board of Legislators (3)
• Cities of Mount Vernon (2), Rye (2), White Plains (1), and Yonkers (2)
• Towns of Greenburgh (1), Mamaroneck (2), Mount Pleasant (1), Ossining (1), Pelham (2), Rye (2)
• Villages of Irvington (2), Larchmont (1), Tuckahoe (1), and Mount Kisco (2)

The day began with a keynote presentation by Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, followed by a Westchester political trivia game. Students then participated in three rounds of interviews with elected officials to learn why the officials chose public service and to better understand the benefits and realities of seeking and holding office. In the afternoon, students took part in a campaign exercise in which each table represented a specific Westchester municipality, selected a campaign issue, and presented the chosen platform to the group.

This program was made possible by a generous grant from The NY Community Trust and the financial assistance from Silver Sponsor: The Campaign School at Yale University and Bronze Sponsors: the American Association of University Women (Westchester County Branch), Westchester Library System, and Westchester Women’s Agenda

For more information on the program or how to become a sponsor, contact lwvwrunandwin@gmail.com.

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Students Inside Albany

Sunday, May 17, 2026, through Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Albany

LWVNYS hosts an annual, intensive, four-day conference, designed to immerse high school students in the process by which public policy is proposed, enacted, and changed in New York State, and to educate them as to how they can influence and affect this process. Albany insiders discuss the operations of New York State government, including how policy is shaped, students develop knowledge of the disparate forces that influence policy development. Students are afforded the opportunity to observe Assembly and Senate sessions and to shadow both their Assembly members and Senators.

LWVW typically receives approval to send one student to the program and seeks candidates from high schools within areas of Westchester County not currently represented by a local league.

Last year, LWVW sent Chloe McKeon from Westlake High School in Thornwood, who reported positively about her SIA experience. This year’s attendee was Nathaniel Nolan, also of Westlake High School in Thornwood, who shared his impressions and memorable Students Inside Albany activities at LWVW’s annual meeting.