Young people have played a vital role in social movements, forming the vanguard of the anti-Vietnam War movement and leading the contemporary environmental and climate justice movement. During the Civil Rights Movement, youth activists organized sit-ins, freedom rides, and voter registration campaigns that challenged racial inequality. Recent research has found that Black youth in particular were heavily involved in the contemporary Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, in part due to their disproportionate representation among victims of police violence. Using data on over 3,300 Black Lives Matter protests from 2014 to 2020, as well as on over 1,100 protest organizations that participated in these protests, we describe the nature of youth-led organization involvement in the BLM movement. Findings demonstrate the enduring influence of youth activism and its unique contribution to shaping social change and promoting racial justice.

Contemporary American society presents a unique set of conditions for the young adults in it. They must make decisions about if/how they choose to practice religion, in a setting where the political interests of their ethnic community, gender identity, and economic class are often at odds, all while navigating social media and the increasing prevalence of “influencer” culture that has been shown to influence political and religious affiliations, particularly in young people because those are the demographic that use social media the most. In the following study, I aim to contextualize the college community of Stanislaus State University, which is situated in the heart of Turlock, in this discourse surrounding the dynamic role of religion in Generation Z’s life, a role that has been shown to be changing from generation to generation, through conducting surveys and interviews with Generation Z students at Cal State Stanislaus. The diversity in ethnic identities that students hold and at the same time, the religious diversity that results from this, makes the college town of Turlock an ideal place to study how religion and ethnic identity work to inform how young generations are developing their political beliefs. I aim to collect data on the religious rates of Generation Z college students, their ethnic identities, their gender, their social media landscapes and their political beliefs, in order to better understand the role that religion plays in the lives of Generation Z students in the Central Valley of California. 

Stereotypes and stigmas regarding religion, education, and politics are all seen throughout political discourse. It is critical that we instead learn to gather predictions based on individual facts, experience, and evidence-based information on each unique circumstance. The importance of political involvement and activity is the realization that it affects each and every one of us. It’s interesting to think that “one vote won’t matter”, yet political figures and laws voted into place definitely impact groups consequently. One specific study found that Christian nationalism is the strongest predictor that an individual will hold greater traditionalist ideologies (Whitehead & Perry 2019). Identified patterns such as these are ones I aim to find in my research of groups from differing religious and academic backgrounds through both quantitative and qualitative methods. This research aims to find whether there is a relationship between religion, education, and political activity, as well as to what extent do each social factor affect political activity. If we know the methods and reasoning behind voters' political activity, we may be able to better predict what influences different groups the most. As we gain a better understanding of these relationships, we can find a more suitable manner in which to educate voters in order to ensure that they are making the best-informed decision that aligns with them and their beliefs. Understanding why people vote the way they do is to understand how and why political action is, in return, affecting us.