Meet Mizuki Yashiro | Founder and Executive Director of the Youth Legislative Action Center

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mizuki Yashiro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mizuki, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
The most important lesson that leading the Youth Legislative Action Center has taught me is the fact that whether it be one person or a thousand, it is the personal connection and testimonials that I have received over the past year that has made my journey rewarding. Every direct message, whether it be through Slack, email, or instagram, hearing small words of the progress that our student organizers have made, or participants who have used our resources to further their involvement into the world of civics, has made me incredibly grateful to the journey I’ve taken. This organization has taught me far more than the skills needed to lead an expansive network, it’s given me lifelong friendships and connections to students and government officials alike.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Throughout the past few years in high school, I had been incredibly invested in politics and education policy, but noticed that the vast majority of my work had been done on a virtual network of organizations. Wanting to be involved more closely within my community, I began searching for local nonpartisan organizations that would facilitate youth involvement in civics, but found it incredibly difficult. The vast majority of opportunities available were well-established partisan groups, making it far more challenging for inexperienced students just beginning to dive into the world of politics (like myself) to jump into. Interested to see if this was a problem that my friends in other organizations experienced, I sent out a message to the various networks I had created. Within the next two days, I had received over thirty messages relaying similar situations in difficulty of finding direct avenues within their home communities of engaging in civics. This was the moment that I knew that our collective searches could become something so much bigger. Around a year ago, I first formed the Youth Legislative Action Center as a group of ten high schoolers across the nation who began letter-writing on pieces of legislation and brainstorming various grassroots lobbying opportunities we could engage in as students living in politically-opportunity sparse areas for youth. Over time, our group of ten expanded to a full-fledged national and regional team, embarking on providing nonpartisan national voter pre-registration guides, state-specific opportunities databases, and voter registration workshops. Today, we currently stand as an international youth-led organization of around four hundred students primarily focused on providing free and comprehensive civic curricula to thousands of students across forty-three states and two nations.

The initial startup process of creating a widely recognized network was difficult at first—sitting at a mere fifty organizers for around the first two months, we were working to deepen our understanding of the civics system before we shared it to the world. It was both a learning experience and a teaching experience for the wonderful group I had the honor of working with. Various research sessions, legislation searches, and voter registration resource outlines began to transform into live sessions, partnerships with international organizations, and a larger student body. The most important factor that facilitated this growth was undoubtedly the consistency we had in our mission. Whether it was the output of our legislation breakdowns, or voter registration resources, we consistently branded ourselves as being an open, nonpartisan organization, helping us garner students from all sides of the political spectrum! Keeping this open network has allowed us to also introduce students from the very beginnings of their understanding of the political system to those who have already created great networks for themselves.

Most importantly, I’d like the world to know that despite our expansive network, we stay close to the community. From the forty-three thriving chapters across the nation, each state director has worked tirelessly to facilitate government-youth conferences with local leaders in their state. The primary goal of state chapters has been to provide a nonpartisan perspective to students interested in furthering their understanding in civics. More than anything, our community-based work is solely focused on education, including the current development of our state-specific free civic curricula. While our mission is to provide this sense of accessibility for students across the board, the most critical aspect has been the base of our organization—the state chapters.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
After moving to Scottsdale a few years ago from California, the weather change was tough, but it came with a few perks! In the blazing heat of the summer, the sunsets are often longlasting, especially near Cave Creek, a little north of Scottsdale. Once it cools down in the fall and winter, hiking has always been a go to activity of mine! Whether it be Pinnacle Peak or Gateway Trailhead, the hikes are always bustling with many other hiking-enthusiasts, trying to get every last bit of the nicer weather.

In addition to many of the wonderful scenic views Arizona has to offer, Arizona offers the Hidden in the Hills Art exhibit in Cave Creek, where many local artists gather to sell their artwork. In Old Town Scottsdale, you can almost always count on local artists and farmer markets from time to time to be out. Although I cannot promise the weather will be cool, Arizona has much to offer!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would put every bit of my thanks to the original members of the Youth Legislative Action Center. Nathan Price, my assistant director, has put every single ounce of effort and work into the unique branding of our organization. From the first zoom calls just discussing our hopes to bring students from all sides of the spectrum to a resource hub, to our current conversations on expanding to provide seminars and active courses for international students, he’s been there every step of the way. The other members on the national staff have similarly been a backbone to our success. Their consistency and constant overflow of ideas has kept our organization a name to know in the available political and civic engagement networks for youth across the nation.

Website: https://www.youthlegislativeactioncenter.org

Instagram: youthlegislativeactioncenter

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mizuki-yashiro-215730279/