The third annual Adolescent Brain Development Symposium, hosted by the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent, convened policymakers, youth-serving organizations, young people, and researchers to talk about The Impact of Civic Engagement in Adolescence.

The second discussion of the event explored the impact of civic engagement on belonging. Veronica Terriquez, PhD, MEd, Professor, UCLA; Jose Salvador Orellana, Executive Director and Co-founder, LOUD for Tomorrow; and Jessa Bayudan, a volunteer and alumni of LOUD for Tomorrow, discuss the importance of creating spaces for diverse communities where adolescents feel they belong and are contributing to their communities.

Participant Bios:

Veronica Terriquez is the Director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. She holds faculty appointments in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and the Urban Planning Department. Trained as a sociologist, her research focuses on social inequality, civic engagement, immigrant integration, gender, and youth transitions to adulthood. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, Gender & Society, Feminist Studies, Social Science & Medicine, and other academic journals. She received her PhD in Sociology at UCLA, her master’s degree in Education at UC Berkeley, and her BA in Sociology at Harvard University. Informed by over two decades of connections to social justice movements in California, much of her research has implications for local and regional policies affecting Latina/o/x, immigrant, and other low-income communities of color.

Jose Salvador Orellana is the Executive Director and Co-founder of LOUD For Tomorrow, a youth-led organization dedicated to building grassroots power for BIPOC communities and young people in California’s Central Valley. Born in Delano, CA, the birthplace of the Farm Labor Movement, Jose is a proud queer, Salvadoran American with a deep understanding of the challenges faced by communities of color. In 2018, Jose began his journey in organizing through a college internship, which allowed him to learn about the power and importance of organizing rural youth of color. This experience ultimately led to the founding of LOUD For Tomorrow. Under his leadership, LOUD has grown into a powerful grassroots youth organizing force building homegrown young leaders, registering voters, and engaging artists and culture workers to create a Central Valley where all families can thrive.

Jessa Bayudan is a third-year Sociology major with minors in Public Affairs and Community Engagement & Social Change. She has been an organizer with LOUD for Tomorrow for about six years. Jess is interested in youth civic engagement because when young people voice their opinions, challenge traditional norms, advocate, and participate in decision-making processes, they can drive meaningful change and amplify voices that might otherwise be marginalized. She has seen how youth bring fresh perspectives and positive transformations to the table.

Moderator Lydia Denworth is an award-winning science journalist. She is a contributing editor at Scientific American, where she writes the Science of Health column, and the author of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond. Friendship was named one of the best leadership books of 2020 by Adam Grant and called “the best of science writing” by Booklist. She is also co-author, with Dana Suskind, of the New York Times bestseller Parent Nation, and has written two other books of popular science: I Can Hear You Whisper and Toxic Truth. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, and many other publications.