Young America’s Foundation’s Reagan Ranch High School Conferences Draw More Than 1,000 Participants in 2022
With the great support of the Daofeng and Angela Foundation, Young America’s Foundation successfully held three impactful high school conferences at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California. The conferences took place in March, June, and October, and each program had hundreds of students attend—students eager to hear conservative ideas.
In March, students had the opportunity to hear from Katie Pavlich, Dr. Burt Folsom, Governor Scott Walker, Jerome Hudson, Anna Strasburg, Todd Starnes, and Mark Skousen, among others. These speakers were viewed additionally online, including more than 5,000 on Todd Starnes’ popular discussion entitled “Our founding fathers knew their pronouns.”
At the June conference, students heard from top conservative leaders including Michael Knowles, Liz Wheeler, Rep. Byron Donalds, Lt. Col. Allen West, Michael Reagan, Brian Brenberg, Kevin Sorbo, Peter Schweizer, and even Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares. Because of the Daofeng and Angela Foundation’s generous gift, these speakers were viewed by thousands of other young people online. Kevin Sorbo garnered an additional 17,988 views to date, and Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire reached more than 55,000 additional views on YouTube. These lectures will be posted on YAF’s YouTube channel in perpetuity, so new young people will continue to have access to these important lectures.
In October, important speakers such as Michael Reagan, Scott Huesing, Kali Fonanilla, Vince Ellison, and others took the stage to discuss important topics including communism vs. capitalism, the infection of wokeness, reasons to be proud of America, and environmentalism. These discussions led to impactful question-and-answer sessions and reached a wider audience through posting on YouTube.
More than 5,000 viewers watched the speech “The American Dream: Myth or Masterpiece” from Kali Fontanilla, and more than 10,000 others chose to watch the speech entitled “Abolish the administrative state” by Liz Wheeler. These lectures continue to educate and inspire young people to reconsider the narrative they’ve been taught, and how to think critically about key public policy issues.
The Reagan Ranch High School Conferences create an environment for students to learn new ideas, debate with top conservative leaders and peers, learn the key characteristics of President Reagan, and equip students to continue their involvement in the Movement in their communities and schools. Students were able to leave the conference with a solid education in conservative values and also receive books and materials that they can take back to their schools to share with their peers or to further their own education.
In 2022, YAF’s June Reagan Ranch High School Conference reached hundreds of students representing 24 states and 142 high schools. The October program also sold out with more than 400 participants from 14 states, 65 high schools, and numerous home school families and associations. In March, another 210 participants attended this important conference, including students from 19 states and 58 high schools.
Thank you to the Daofeng and Angela Foundation for their support of this key program, which brought exciting and inspiring speakers to Santa Barbara to educate more than 1,000 students in 2022. With the incredible numbers this program reaches, it is more important than ever to have strong and impactful speakers to address students.