Our experienced team helps students throughout the entire process, and Foundation team members often provide on-the-ground assistance in advance of select events to energize the young conservatives and ensure successful lectures. With the help of our supporters, Young America’s Foundation also helps students fund their programs, as most schools do not allocate funding for conservative groups and their activities. Several key lecture series were made possible in 2015 and 2016 by generous donations from Wendy P. McCaw, Fred R. Allen, and Janice Shengold, who provided substantial grants for our named lecture programs. These important lecture series featured leading conservatives, including Steve Forbes, Lt. Col. Allen West, Senator Rick Santorum, Dinesh D’Souza, Ben Shapiro, Star Parker, and many others who addressed capacity crowds of young people.
Maximizing Our Speakers’ Messages Online Throughout the school year, Young America’s Foundation live-streamed many of our breakthrough campus events, expanding our reach to millions. National audiences tuned in to watch Dinesh D’Souza debate Bill Ayers at the University of Michigan, and millions have viewed Ben Shapiro’s address at the University of Missouri.
More than 34,000 watched Dinesh D’Souza at Gonzaga University after the community was initially banned from hearing the bestselling author’s lecture because his views didn’t fit with the school’s “social justice mission.” These live streams expand the Foundation’s reach and inform other students and parents about how they can work with the Foundation to advance freedom at their schools.
As William F. Buckley Jr. noted about the Foundation’s breakthrough lecture program:
On the matter of your lecture series, these are experiences of infinite importance. As recently as last night, a 42-year- old affluent influential conservative told an audience of 400 people that his orientation came from hearing such a talk (yes, by me) at Cornell when he was a sophomore. So I do hope that your important Foundation will be able to continue to support such appearances in the years ahead.
Young America’s Foundation will build on its momentum to ensure more students hear the conservative ideas sadly missing from their classrooms and lecture halls. We want more students to share Harvard University student Cameron Khansarinia’s enthusiasm following the lecture he organized featuring Steve Forbes:
Thank you so much for your support and generosity in getting Mr. Forbes…He was a great speaker and he had the audience laughing, thinking, and ready to take action. Thank you, again.
To keep up with the campus lectures Young America’s Foundation is bringing to schools around the country this fall, bookmark our
events schedule.
Students’ excitement to hear from conservative leaders did little to stop school administrations from doing all they could to prevent these speakers from coming to their campuses. Schools, including California State University, Los Angeles; Gonzaga University; Wingate University; and others created barriers to make it difficult for students to host a Foundation speaker. In each case, the Foundation successfully exposed the censorship, holding the schools’ administrators and professors accountable for their divisive tactics.
