Canyon High School’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter in New Braunfels, Texas recently hosted a campus lecture with Dinesh D’Souza. Held during school hours, hundreds of students heard about conservative ideas, which they are not hearing in their classrooms. The decision to host D’Souza came as a result of a group of Canyon students attending a YAF high school conference at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California. “Having been to a few YAF conferences and learning how to identify bias in our schools, it became obvious both to myself and my fellow officers that our high school was not immune to a liberally biased education, especially when it came to our social studies classes.” The YAFers at Canyon received Movement-leading training at YAF and returned to campus in the last year determined to bring the conservative message to their peers. It is no easy feat hosting a speaker as Morgan Moya, chair of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter notes. “I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to approach and negotiate with school administration. I had to be decisive, convincing and remain level headed with adults much older than myself and with the ultimate power to say no.” Surely, “negotiating” first amendment rights is something our students are familiar with and, thanks to our training, are successful in doing. What is impressive here is that these high school students successfully convinced their administrators to let them host a speaker during school hours. Some schools demand events be held after hours or during unconventional times, but Canyon YAF managed to get the event at a prime time during the day. One would think that conservative students would be awarded the same opportunities as their liberal counterparts to bring in outside speakers, but the reality is that they are not. Thankfully, Young America’s Foundation has successfully trained activists across the country, at the college and high school levels, to successfully host events on their campuses. Moya noted, “These are the reasons we felt it was important to bring in a speaker like Dinesh. We wanted to give students an opportunity to hear from someone different, to hear a different point of view. And overall, it was a big success.” Indeed, the event was successful. Over 300 students and parents packed the auditorium and listened attentively as D’Souza delivered his remarks and thousands watched our live stream online. D’Souza spoke on American exceptionalism and his own experience chasing the American dream coming to the United States from his native India. Students had the opportunity to ask questions following the lecture, engaging in a lively discussion with D’Souza. The conversation had in the auditorium, as Moya noted, is something students are not having in the classrooms of Canyon High School. This is just the most recent example of high school students taking initiatives on their campus to bring conservative ideas thanks to the training they receive from Young America’s Foundation. As our chapter network expands, there is a constant growth in the number of high school students identifying liberal biases in their classrooms and taking action. “It’s the left-leaning opinion column in our textbooks, it’s our US history teacher giving us more assignments on feminism than the entirety or World War II, it’s our Government teacher giving personal and very liberal explanations to controversial court cases, and it’s our economics teacher telling one of our officers that her political views were immoral and unredeemable during class,” said Moya High school students are encouraged to attend this summer’s YAF conferences, which include the National High School Leadership Conference in Bethesda, Maryland in July and the High School Conference at the Reagan Ranch in August. At these conferences, students will hear from prominent names in the Conservative Movement, learn how to bring conservative ideas to their campus, and even walk in President Ronald Reagan’s footsteps. As graduates of our high school program, they will head back to campus in the fall with the knowledge and resources necessary to host a successful campus lecture like Morgan Moya and the rest of the YAFers at Canyon High School.
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The decision to host D’Souza came as a result of a group of Canyon students attending a YAF high school conference at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California. “Having been to a few YAF conferences and learning how to identify bias in our schools, it became obvious both to myself and my fellow officers that our high school was not immune to a liberally biased education, especially when it came to our social studies classes.” The YAFers at Canyon received Movement-leading training at YAF and returned to campus in the last year determined to bring the conservative message to their peers. It is no easy feat hosting a speaker as Morgan Moya, chair of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter notes. “I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to approach and negotiate with school administration. I had to be decisive, convincing and remain level headed with adults much older than myself and with the ultimate power to say no.” Surely, “negotiating” first amendment rights is something our students are familiar with and, thanks to our training, are successful in doing. What is impressive here is that these high school students successfully convinced their administrators to let them host a speaker during school hours. Some schools demand events be held after hours or during unconventional times, but Canyon YAF managed to get the event at a prime time during the day. One would think that conservative students would be awarded the same opportunities as their liberal counterparts to bring in outside speakers, but the reality is that they are not. Thankfully, Young America’s Foundation has successfully trained activists across the country, at the college and high school levels, to successfully host events on their campuses. Moya noted, “These are the reasons we felt it was important to bring in a speaker like Dinesh. We wanted to give students an opportunity to hear from someone different, to hear a different point of view. And overall, it was a big success.” Indeed, the event was successful. Over 300 students and parents packed the auditorium and listened attentively as D’Souza delivered his remarks and thousands watched our live stream online. 
D’Souza spoke on American exceptionalism and his own experience chasing the American dream coming to the United States from his native India. Students had the opportunity to ask questions following the lecture, engaging in a lively discussion with D’Souza. The conversation had in the auditorium, as Moya noted, is something students are not having in the classrooms of Canyon High School. This is just the most recent example of high school students taking initiatives on their campus to bring conservative ideas thanks to the training they receive from Young America’s Foundation. As our chapter network expands, there is a constant growth in the number of high school students identifying liberal biases in their classrooms and taking action. “It’s the left-leaning opinion column in our textbooks, it’s our US history teacher giving us more assignments on feminism than the entirety or World War II, it’s our Government teacher giving personal and very liberal explanations to controversial court cases, and it’s our economics teacher telling one of our officers that her political views were immoral and unredeemable during class,” said Moya High school students are encouraged to attend this summer’s YAF conferences, which include the National High School Leadership Conference in Bethesda, Maryland in July and the High School Conference at the Reagan Ranch in August. At these conferences, students will hear from prominent names in the Conservative Movement, learn how to bring conservative ideas to their campus, and even walk in President Ronald Reagan’s footsteps. As graduates of our high school program, they will head back to campus in the fall with the knowledge and resources necessary to host a successful campus lecture like Morgan Moya and the rest of the YAFers at Canyon High School.
