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SUPPORTING THE NEXT GENERATION OF FREE EXPRESSION ADVOCATES

PEN America is committed to empowering a new generation of free expression advocates and building a youth advocacy network that can work together to facilitate positive change. We regularly invite students to support and engage in our national and international advocacy efforts, and actively seek ways to amplify and encourage students’ own free expression advocacy projects.
PEN America Youth Advocates lead vigil for Ukraine
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PEN America’s Free Expression Advocacy Institutes

 

PEN America’s Free Expression Advocacy Institutes are FREE, intensive educational and training programs where students can get certified in the theories, laws, histories, and methodologies that animate free expression advocacy. Our programs include workshops led by expert legal and policy practitioners from PEN America’s staff and networks, facilitated discussion sessions, games, and activities, as well as advocacy campaign group projects where students can simulate activism on issues they care about.

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PEN America’s Student Summits

 

PEN America’s Student Summits convene high school and/or college students for 1-2 days of workshops that either provide an introduction to free expression principles, or explore a particular free expression issue area, like book bans, media literacy, or press freedom. For each Student Summit event, the Next Gen PEN America team works closely with various partners and hosts from around the country, including partner advocacy organizations, public libraries, schools, and student groups.

 

Past Student Summit Partners:

 

Student Summit Partner Logo Bed

 

Click here to host a Student Summit with PEN America!

More Opportunities

Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program – Fall 2023

Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program – Fall 2023

PEN America is offering a 14-week professional Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program for undergraduate and graduate students passionate about human rights, the written word, and free expression in the United States and worldwide.
Learn More
Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program - Summer 2023

Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program - Summer 2023

PEN America is offering a 14-week professional Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program for undergraduate and graduate students passionate about human rights, the written word, and free expression in the United States and worldwide.
Learn More
Join our LinkedIn Group

Join our LinkedIn Group

Networking is key in the professional field of free expression advocacy. Former fellows, interns, and students of PEN America are invited to join our LinkedIn group to stay in touch.
Join us

Past Guest Speakers

Kirill Artemenko

CEO, Paperpaper
Nora Benavidez headshot

Nora Benavidez

Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights, Free Press

Amanda Bennett

Pulitzer Prize-winning Author and Journalist

Neijma Celestine-Donnor

Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Maryland-Baltimore School of Social Work

Troy Closson

Metro Reporter, The New York Times

Alex Gino

Author and Activist

Hadar Harris

Interim Washington Director Washington, D.C.

Dr. Faizullah Jan

Journalist, Dawn Newspaper

David Kaye

Clinical Professor of Law, UC Irvine

Amna Khalid

Associate Professor in the Department of History, Carleton College
Mai Khoi headshot

Mai Khoi

Artist and Activist

Julia Rose Kraut

Author

Susan Kuklin

Author and Photographer

Frank LoMonte

Director, Brechner Center for Freedom of Information
Writers at Risk Database

Wa Lone

Journalist, Reuters

Paul Muldoon

Poet

Fallon McClure

Georgia State Director, Spread the Vote
Ahmed Naji

Ahmed Naji

Author

Rikki Nathanson

Senior Advisor, Global Trans Program, OutRight Action International

Solomon Collins Nkulinga

Program Assistant, Disability Rights Fund and the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund
Achiro Patricia Olwoch

Achiro Patricia Olwoch

Writer, playwright, and filmmaker

Gregory Pardlo

Author and Poet

Daniel Alejandro Pinilla

Journalist, Human Rights Advocates Program at Columbia

Rachel Sanchez-Keneally

Government Liaison and Program Coordinator, IOM

Emerson Sykes

Staff Attorney, Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Bakary Tandia

Co-Founder, The Abolition Institute

Mary Beth Tinker

Vladimir Tlali

Director, New York State LGBT Human and Health Services Network

Laurence H. Tribe

Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School

Bukeni Waruzi

Executive Director, Free the Slaves

Browse the Spring 2023 Free Expression Leadership Fellows Program Anthology

Next Gen PEN America

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