Event Overview
| YAF is aware of and currently monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, the Foundation is hopeful that we will be able to continue this program as planned. YAF will communicate any changes here and with participants via email. Coronavirus questions & answers can be downloaded here. |
Standing Up for Faith & Freedom
If you are a college or high school student at a Catholic school, Young America’s Foundation’s Standing Up for Faith & Freedom seminar is for you. This one-of-a-kind program helps students at Catholic schools advance conservative ideas, with an understanding that young people encounter unique challenges and opportunities at modern Catholic institutions. The program is not restricted to Catholic students.
Young America’s Foundation created Standing Up for Faith & Freedom to advance opportunities for young conservatives that had previously been overlooked by existing efforts. Student leaders are most effective when they address issues that match up with the concerns of students on their campuses. Decades of teaching young people how to identify and respond to issues specific to their campuses demonstrate that students at Catholic schools need specialized training.
COST: This program is only $20. This includes two nights at a Reston hotel, conference tuition, materials, and 4 meals (Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Generous supporters of Young America’s Foundation have made this program possible. Therefore, you are required to attend all the sessions and abide by all the rules outlined in the responsibility pledge you will receive prior to the conference.
Details: Revised 8/21/20 Frequently Asked Questions
Registration: This event has sold-out.
Young America's Foundtion
11480 Commerce Park Drive, Suite 600
Reston, Virginia 20191
Paul Kengor
Author, Grove City College Professor, and Executive Director of Center for Vision & Values
Dr. Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College, a four-year, private Christian liberal arts college located in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He is executive director of the Center for Vision & Values, a Grove City College think-tank and policy center. He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and…
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Rachel Campos-Duffy
Fox News Contributor
Rachel Campos-Duffy may have gotten her start as one of the stars of the iconic show, MTVs The Real World: San Francisco, but today she is ranked one of “Newsmax’s 50 Most Influential Latino” leaders and sought after for her honest, insightful, and often humorous real-world view of the news cycle and American public policy.…
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Trent Horn
Catholic Answers Staff Apologist
After his conversion to the Catholic faith, Trent Horn earned master’s degrees in the fields of theology, philosophy, and bioethics. He serves as a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, where he specializes in teaching Catholics to graciously and persuasively engage those who disagree with them. Trent models that approach each week on the radio program Catholic…
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Rev. Robert A. Sirico
President of the Acton Institute
Rev. Robert A. Sirico received his Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic University of America, following undergraduate study at the University of Southern California and the University of London. During his studies and early ministry, he experienced a growing concern over the lack of training religious studies students receive in fundamental economic principles, leaving…
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Jeanne Mancini
President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund
Jeanne Mancini is the president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund and directs the organization’s commitment to restoring a culture of life in the United States, most notably through the annual March for Life event in Washington, D.C., held annually on the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.…
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Ron Robinson
President of Young America's Foundation, Trustee of The Phillips Foundation, Author, Director of Citizen's United and American Conservative Union
Video: How Does the Media Treat Conservatives? (10-19-12) 52:53 Ron Robinson has served as Young America’s Foundation’s president for more than four decades. Time magazine wrote that Young America’s “[F]oundation—run by a former Reagan Administration advisor, Ron Robinson—is now the nation’s largest advocacy group devoted to student politics.” Time referred to Robinson as one of the “seasoned generals of the right” who…
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Kimberly Martin Begg, Esq.
Young America's Foundation Board of Director and General Counsel of the Ortner Family Foundation
Kimberly Martin Begg, Esq. has been active in the Conservative Movement since she attended her first Young America’s Foundation conference as a student at Rutgers University. She served on the Foundation’s staff for nearly 15 years, operating as Vice President, General Counsel, and Director of Planned Giving. For nearly 15 years, Kimberly oversaw YAF’s legal department…
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Michael Knowles
Host at the Michael Knowles Show, The Daily Wire
Michael Knowles hosts The Michael Knowles Show at the Daily Wire. In 2017, he wrote the #1 national bestselling treatise Reasons To Vote For Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide, which President Donald Trump hailed as “a great book for your reading enjoyment.” Before blank book fame, Michael studied History and Italian Literature at Yale University, graduating…
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Patrick J. Reilly
President and CEO, The Cardinal Newman Society
Patrick J. Reilly founded The Cardinal Newman Society in 1993 and serves as President and CEO. The Newman Society promotes and defends faithful Catholic education by recognizing exemplary Catholic schools and colleges and advocating the Church’s vision for authentic Catholic formation. Reilly has authored and edited many articles, reports, studies, and other publications on Catholic…
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Jack Duffy
National High School Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom
Jack Duffy is a junior at Newman Catholic High School. Jack has been attending YAF conferences since his freshman year. Despite slight push back from their school, the Newman Catholic YAF Chapter successfully coordinated the 9-11 Never Forget Project, and in doing so brought the fire department, local police force, first responders, the student body,…