yaf logo
yaf logo

Young America's Foundation: 2017's 'Conservative Force'

Young America’s Foundation: 2017’s ‘Conservative Force’

By

spencerbrown

December 20, 2017

The Left fears us. That’s right. They fear Young America’s Foundation’s programs and students. We are the one organization liberal faculty, administrators, and antifa thugs consistently attempt to undermine, and use bureaucratic maneuvers to deter Young America’s Foundation events on campuses across the country. Our impact is why more than 46% of our events have been targets of protests this year. Our impact is why the failing New York Times went out of its way to write a front-page story on our efforts to bring conservative speakers to colleges and universities nationwide. Our impact is why POLITICO recognizes that Young America’s Foundation is a “key pillar of the Conservative Movement.” Our impact is why Vice President Mike Pence called Young America’s a “bulwark of American greatness.” Because the Left knows that only Young America’s Foundation has a record of establishing long-lasting impact through our Movement-leading activism methods. We accomplish what others in the Movement can only report on. Our results during 2017 speak for themselves. Young America’s Foundation is the organization students contact to help restore free speech and basic freedoms at their schools. We help them organize substantial, breakthrough events on their high school and college campuses. In 2017, Young America’s Foundation broke through the Left’s monopoly on ideas at some of the nation’s most hostile campuses. Students at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; Harvard; Princeton; Yale; California State University, Los Angeles; and The George Washington University, among others, heard conservative ideas straight from the source, without the biased filter of liberal professors. Leading conservatives, including Lt. Col. Allen West, Ben Shapiro, RachelCampos-Duffy, Senator Rick Santorum, and Christina Hoff Sommerspresented conservative ideas to standing-room-only crowds. Those who doubt conservative ideas are popular among young people have never attended a Young America’s Foundation campus lecture. These substantial, campus-changing events are spearheaded by students carrying the torch of freedom first lit in 1960 by young conservatives at William F. Buckley’s home in Sharon, Connecticut. In 2017, Young Americans for Freedom saw a 62% increase in the number of new chapters, while existing chapters strengthened their resolve to advance freedom’s principles as the visible presence of the Conservative Movement at their schools. Underscoring the demand for conservative ideas and Young America’s Foundation programs, every YAF conference in 2017 was sold-out, including our largest-ever High School Conference at the Reagan Ranch. President Reagan once said, “There’s a flickering spark in us all which, if struck at just the right age, can light the rest of our lives.” Bestselling authors Marc Thiessen, Katie Pavlich, and Peter Schweizer all had that spark lit in them at a Young America’s Foundation conference. In 2017, the next generation of conservative leaders were inspired at YAF events by leading speakers, including Vice President Mike Pence, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, Secretary Ben Carson, Dr. Carol Swain, Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, Dan Hannan, Everett Piper, and dozens more. When Young America’s Foundation stepped forward to save President Reagan’s favorite spot on earth, it was with the intention to preserve the mountaintop ranch as more than a premiere Presidential property but also as a lasting monument to our 40th President’s accomplishments and ideas. Now, 20 years since the decision was made to secure Rancho del Cielo for generations to come, students continue to be inspired by the humble setting Ronald Reagan chose to be his “Western White House.” The 688-acre ranch is complimented by YAF’s Reagan Ranch Center, a “schoolhouse for Reaganism” in downtown Santa Barbara. The Center’s 20,000 square feet of conference and event space, classrooms, and offices make YAF’s presence the Conservative Movement’s largest site on the West Coast, and allowing Young America’s Foundation to continue inspiring bold Reagan-style activism among the rising generation. In 2017, 235+ high schools and colleges became sites of meaningful remembrance for the lives lost on September 11, 2001, through YAF’s 9/11: Never Forget Project. The more than 700,000 American flags placed on school grounds as part of those memorials reminded students of the price of freedom and inspired patriotism. As collectivist ideas continue to be taught by leftists in America’s classrooms, YAF activists around the country participated in Freedom Week to celebrate the fall of communism, with mock Berlin Walls signifying the barriers leftist administrators construct to block free speech on campuses today. To further push back against the Left’s glorification of socialist tyrants, YAF activists nationwide participated in No More Che Day to inform their peers of the dangers of socialism. When politically-correct leftists tried to ban so-called culturally appropriative halloween costumes, YAF’s ‘Funeral for Halloween’ saw students poking fun at the ridiculous rules imposed by liberals. As President Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” And that is exactly what Young America’s Foundation accomplished in 2017.

Related Resources

Article

March 28, 2024

The New Guard

Meet the 2023 Dao Prize Finalists

Article

March 28, 2024

The New Guard

UC-Santa Barbara Pro-Hamas Left Petitions To Remove Jewish Student Gov President For Calling Out Blatant Antisemitism

Article

March 25, 2024

The New Guard

IRONIC: Hamas-Supporting Students Complain Lt. Col. Allen West is a ‘Pro-Cop Transphobe,’ Ahead of YAF Lecture

Get Involved

Become a Member

Chapters

Events & Conferences

Host a Speaker

Campus Activism

Programs

Center for Entrepreneurship

National Journalism Center

Reagan Ranch

Reagan Boyhood Home

Campus Lectures & Activism

Defending Student Rights

Middle School Programs

News & Media

All Media

Articles

Videos

The New Guard

About

About Us

Staff Members

Our Boards

Careers

Financials

Get Involved

Become a Member

Chapters

Events & Conferences

Host a Speaker

Campus Activism

Programs

Center for Entrepreneurship

National Journalism Center

Reagan Ranch

Reagan Boyhood Home

Campus Lectures & Activism

Defending Student Rights

Middle School Programs

News & Issues

All Media

Articles

Videos

The New Guard

About

About Us

Staff Members

Our Boards

Careers

Financials