Introducing the Organizers of the 2024 Youth Investigators in Action Summit
Casey W. Adrian, PRYDE Research Aide & Community Outreach Coordinator
Photography: Heather Ainsworth
This June, fourteen students from North Rockland High School came to Cornell for an intensive, three-day crash course in Youth Participatory Action Research — PRYDE’s second annual Youth Investigators in Action Summit. Before coming to campus, these students (aka “Youth Investigators”) spent ten weeks in the classroom with Kristin Ruggiero, a 4-H Educator from Rockland County, where they learned about the social science research process, participatory methodologies, and research ethics. At Cornell, these teens put their classroom learning into action. This experience empowered students to ask their own questions and develop the skills to answer them — providing them with the tools to make critical observations about their own communities. And while this was undoubtedly important for these high school Investigators, the Summit had a similar impact on Lucas Li, Justus Jenkins, and Ayushi Kapoor: three undergraduate and graduate student members of the Summit team, responsible for organizing and facilitating the three-day event.
Lucas Li, junior Computer Science & Linguistics student, was one member of the Summit team. He commented on the palpable excitement among the Youth Investigators — especially as these high school researchers prepared to interview Cornell students about their college experiences. “I think the kids really loved exploring Cornell and imagining themselves as students here,” Lucas reflected. “And getting the chance to talk to students about their own college experience enhanced that as well. They seemed to take the interviews seriously and were super engaged, even though some of them were shy and nervous at first.” As the only undergraduate member of the Summit team, Lucas enjoyed being alongside the Investigators as they were fully immersed in the campus, just as he had been a few years earlier. “I found it so fun to show the high school students around campus. I’ve been a student here for a while so the initial glow of it went away. But seeing their excitement reminded me of what it felt like to be a high schooler or new freshman.”
Justus Jenkins, a Master of Public Administration student at Cornell, reflected on the personal and professional impact of working with these young researchers. On day one, Justus requested something from the Investigators: “I want to be a high school teacher,” Justus told the room. “So you have to be honest and tell me if I’m good at this.”
Later in the week, one student followed through. “On the last day of the Summit,” Justus began, “An Investigator told me that I was going to make a great teacher. To receive that kind of affirmation from a highschooler was quite assuring.”
To cap off the experience, the Youth Investigators presented their findings to a room of Cornell faculty, administrators from North Rockland High School, and PRYDE staff. After presenting their data — collected from secondary data analysis, a photovoice activity in Anabel Taylor Hall, and interviews with college students — the fourteen Investigators made recommendations for equitable changes within Cornell and their own high school. “Seeing the students present their work at the end of the Summit was particularly rewarding,” Ayushi Kapoor, another member of the Summit team and Master of Public Administration Student at Cornell, commented. Ayushi, who hopes for a career in the world of international NGOs, enjoyed preparing the students to present their recommendations for change. “Their recommendations for their school and Cornell University demonstrated that the three days of activities were well-received and impactful. The students' ability to engage deeply in discussions and present comprehensive findings despite initial shyness on stage was impressive.”
The Youth Investigators in Action Summit represented the best of PRYDE — college students, teens, and a community organization coming together to encourage youth exploration. We want to thank Lucas, Justus, and Ayushi for their hugely important roles in putting it all together!