Nick Freitas, Green Beret and conservative commentator, challenged students to fight for America’s founding principles, kicking off the Young America’s Foundation’s Reagan Ranch High School Student Conference.
His speech was centered around the importance of knowing your values, standing firm in your convictions, and having the courage to defend them even when doing so is hard.
Freitas emphasized that freedom and the principles America was founded upon are not guaranteed. Each generation must be willing to fight and stand up for those ideals as the generations that came before have.
He encouraged attendees to move beyond simply holding conservative beliefs and instead lead as effective advocates for those beliefs through leadership and action.
In addition to his speech, Freitas gave students the opportunity to put those principles into practice through a series of live debates. Assuming the role of the opposition, he challenged attendees to defend their beliefs and respond to opposing viewpoints in real time.
Rather than simply discussing conservative principles, students were expected to articulate and defend them under pressure, helping them build confidence and giving them the skills needed to engage in difficult conversations beyond the classroom
“I am a sparring partner,” said Freitas. “ I try to put them into positions where they’re going to experience the kind of things they’ll experience in the real world.”
