Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) is a movement of young people – primarily high school and undergraduate students – developing transferable skills and demonstrating youth visibility in policymaking. We're creating a vehicle for driving civic transformation as we build a social movement for bettering our communities and dismantling oppressive power structures in education.

From delivering crucial testimony to the U.S. Senate on the harmful impacts of book bans, to speaking on panels at national conferences like SXSW, we've been engaging an intergenerational community of partners in addressing Generation Z's most intricate and complex issues regarding the future of democracy.

In Spring 2024, we are bringing together students across Texas for our second annual "SEAT at the Capitol" summit in Austin, along with organizing statewide in school districts and preparing for the 89th Texas Legislature. These community-building programs and impact-driven actions require a growing budget to alleviate our limited capacity.

We have ambitious plans, and we hope to count on your support. Better yet, if we reach our $1,000 goal in 30 days, we're eligible for matched funding!! Please consider contributing to make our student-led efforts possible.

Your contribution allows us to:

Organize direct action – SEAT organizer Emma Barberena rallied students together at the Fort Worth ISD board meeting to support comprehensive sex education amid a shame-based, abstinence-only proposal. We handed out SEAT's "Know Your Rights" lanyards with our Student Resource Hub, distributed banned books that empower students, and made sure transportation finances were not a barrier for students to testify.
Host youth-led programs for youth – SEAT organizer Grace Ding leads our Research Collective, a monthly convening of students learning about data collection, investigative analysis, and producing innovative reports to advocate for policy change. And we are anticipating great successes with our upcoming statewide leadership summit, a line-up of speaker programs, and a Summer Advocates program in the works.
Compensate a robust leadership team – As full time students, we don't have unlimited time and have bills to pay. Members of our leadership team are paid stipends between $50-100 with a volunteer commitment of about 40 hours a month to confront inequities in education. SEAT is our family – it's a peer mentor network contributing to our personal growth and leadership development. With growing issues to tackle, we need to grow our capacity.
Eliminating barriers to the frontlines – Every student has a voice, but not necessarily the means to access power. Texas is huge, and traveling to Austin or even a school board meeting requires schlep to express our needs to policymakers. We even receive invitations to the White House, Congress, and other speaking engagements that require financing. The only way we will reduce inequality in public education, policy, and democracy is if we plant the necessary seeds for growth and break barriers to accessing decision-making.

Stay in touch with us!

Visit our website at studentsengaged.org, and follow us on Instagram at @studentsengagedtx.

Help Students Demand a SEAT at the Table!! 🪑

By Katy Lions Foundation

Help Students Demand a SEAT at the Table!! 🪑

In Texas, Student Organizers Need Your Help Defending Democracy and Public Education