Andrew Wilkes of Generation Citizen supports resolutions

Good afternoon, Chair Denowitz, Chair Joseph, and members of the Education and Higher Education Committees.

My name is Dr.

Andrew Wilkes, and I serve as Generation Citizens, Chief Voice and Policy Officer.

For over 15 years, Generation Citizen has championed real-world democracy across the five boroughs, making sure that young people have the hands-on skills, knowledge, and agency for active civic life.

I stand before you virtually in strong endorsement of proposed Resolution 620 and Resolutions 418 and 451.

I just want to speak briefly about why these resolutions matter.

Universal implementation under Resolution 620 is vital to combating systemic youth disconnection from politics and to bridging deep-seated inequities in civics education access,

which historically leaves students in lower-income communities and communities of color with far fewer opportunities for hands-on civic learning.

When I think about Resolution 418,

It's a great opportunity to set in place vital post-secondary value for civic excellence, as we've considered for much of this hearing,

by directly bridging high school achievement to college completion, higher education degree pathways, and workforce success that can help ensure that students

Civic engagement yields tangible post-secondary return on investment.

And then finally, in Resolution 451, Generation Citizen has actually worked pretty closely with some of the folks in Albany, Assemblymember Colton and Senator

Clare to advocate for the passage and statewide implementation of these bills.

And it really points to how experiential civics.

Moves education beyond how a bill becomes a law, beyond passive textbook memorization, into students discovering the value of their voice, the value of community-based problem solving.

Having served as appointees on the task force that successfully recommended the seal of civic readiness,

Generation Citizen believes that we need an operational engine to make the incredible progress that we've already made

move towards further progress so that we can serve all learners, multilingual learners, students experiencing disabilities, and those who are stepping into the fullness of what their voice and their brilliance can mean in their communities.

To that end, we've created a seal of civic readiness toolkit that helps to assist schools and districts in taking part in the seal.

And I'm landing the plane here.

When young people learn democracy by doing democracy.

We believe they build critical skills.

and advocacy, policy literacy, and collaboration.

And so by adopting these resolutions and investing in sustained professional development.

Thank you.

Your time has expired.

Thank you so much.

Deeply appreciate it.