NextGen America

Become a Student Leader:
Join NextGen

NextGen is dedicated to empowering student leaders on college campuses to become life-long organizers. We educate, mobilize, and support young people to advocate for the issues important to them through innovative in-person and digital tactics. In 2026, we’ll be rolling out new ways for students to collaborate with NextGen – whether you’re interested in starting your own NextGen chapter, hosting events on your campus, creating digital content, or strengthening your organizing knowledge. Be the first to hear about how you can get started and join our youth movement:

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students recommend the program

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campus events hosted by students

Benefits of Starting a NextGen Chapter (Registered Student Organization or RSO)

  • Advance your goals and build a movement: Ask yourself: what change do you want to see on campus or in your community? Your NextGen chapter can build power to make that a reality! 
  • Create long-term impact: change can take time – by setting up a sustainable club, you can ensure your efforts have a long-term impact. 
  • Gain leadership experience & transferable skills: setting up a club requires a level of leadership that will improve your confidence as a leader, public speaker, and decision-maker; and it’ll look great on a resume! 
  • Build community & expand your network: you’ll gain new connections, as well as help others find community within the club. 
  • Enjoy the perks of official recognition on campus: depending on your university, having a status as an official club typically comes with perks like being able to reserve spaces on campus, set up tables, get added to your school’s club portal, and potentially receive funding from your university. 
  • Receive professional organizing and event training from NextGen: at NextGen, we’ve been organizing on campuses for over a decade. We’ll walk you through the fundamentals of campus organizing and provide you with training resources and support to make your efforts as successful as possible! 
  • Access to NextGen’s network and connections: we have relationships with partner organizations and notable individuals in the political realm who may make great partners or speakers for your club!
  • It’s fun! 🥳: trying to make change can be challenging work, but through it all we build community and have a good time. We want you to be creative and have fun doing it!

Student Event Examples

  • Students typically plan two organizing events during their cohort. These events can include a wide variety of actions, including: 
    • Voter registration drives
    • Voter education events
    • Educational info session about an issue (for example: climate solutions, education policy, immigration)
    • Campus clean up with voter or issue education
    • Info session or recruitment for a NextGen campus club
    • Actions to advance a campus-specific issue like securing Election Day off on campus

Questions? Contact us at leaderslab@nextgenamerica.org!

Student Testimonials

“I gained invaluable leadership and organizational skills from coordinating workshops and collaborating with peers who shared a passion for social change. Witnessing students engage with the electoral process, ask questions, and start conversations about issues that mattered to them was especially rewarding. I also feel so much more confident running meetings by myself for the NextGen club at my school.”

– Ashmeen K., University of Virginia

“My initial goals were to learn how to activate other students to be leaders on the issues I care about and get more people involved in voting and advocacy. I definitely made progress on them! I am happy to have had a more formal education on organizing and to learn from the experiences of others. I also was able to use the second event to get more people engaged in our food security advocacy.”

– Parker D., Michigan State University