Our members attended MSABC events throughout the state to support fundraising efforts for breast cancer research as well as promote ACS CAN advocacy actions. Pictured above: Kaitlyn Lee at a SoCal event!

In order to generate legislative support for the SEL-member-driven AB 703, our team hosted a plethora of tabling events throughout the state, collecting hundreds of petition signatures in support of the bill. Pictured above: an SEL table at a farmers market in Mountain House, CA led by Sahasra Cheekati.

We sent student advocates to ACS CAN California’s annual volunteer leadership summit, hosted at Loyola Marymount University. Our members underwent a training on effective grassroots advocacy and presented their health equity passion projects to other non-youth ASC CAN ambassadors.

Pictured above is one of our members, Sahil Mehta, meeting with Assemblymember Alex Lee. Sahil was able to successfully pitch the idea for a bill that established a childhood cancer tax contribution fund, culminating in the introduction of AB 703 — a bill that successfully passed both the California Assembly & Senate!

This year, the SEL launched a chapter-based program: the Schools of Emerging Leaders (ScEL). Over 2025, the program has grown to over 16 chapters, including chapters at CalTech, UCLA, and Brown University!

In 2025, our executive chair Kaitlyn Lee founded the SEL County Leads program. Each County Lead is required to promote ACS CAN advocacy action items within their community by holding at least one grassroots tabling event per month. Over the course of 2025, our County Leads ran 45+ tabling events and collected 1K+ petition signatures. Pictured above: Alameda County Co-Lead Angad Hayer.

This year, our members did an incredible job fundraising and promoting Lights of Hope! Combined, we fundraised around $5K in 2025. Much of this fundraising came from tabling booths such as the one pictured above featuring Anika Vittal.

Many of our student advocates increased their engagement with local politics (e.g. attending town halls for political candidates, offering public testimony at city council meetings). Pictured above is Kira Sano providing public comment at an LA County Board of Supervisors meeting in support of an eventually-successful ordinance that relieved $500 million dollars of medical debt for low-income LA county residents!

Successfully held a health policy Q&A with Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-16). We had over 60+ participants attend this engaging and informative conversation on the state of Medical, the federal attacks on Medicaid, and cuts to cancer research funding.

A select of our student advocacy leaders were chosen to provide testimony on bills related to cancer prevention & detection and tobacco cessation, including Sabrina Toor for AB 1230 (picture above) and Sim Sidhu for AB 573.

Jamie Escoto and a group of SEL members including Anwita Gandesiri, Abhay Sudhir, Natalie Aye, Ekam Sidhu, and Ashton Havens launched an innovative and one-of-kind project: a hackathon in support of fundraising for ACS CAN. The first component of Hack4Hope was a virtual hackathon in August 2025. Pictured above are a few of the 16 projects that came out of this unique event.

Sent student leaders to Washington D.C. to speak to their representatives about the DIVERSE Trials Act, Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Act, and an Increase in Federal Funding for Cancer Research and Prevention—marking a historic number of youth volunteers.

Our team fundraised over $1.5k in Lights of Hope Bags that we brought to the Reflection Pool in D.C.

Led sessions for youth and young professional engagement. Recruited new volunteers and hosted focus groups for California engagement.

Sent members across California throughout October to host petition drives and informational booths to raise awareness for ACS CAN.

Our team spoke at press events, getting letters to the editor published in local newspapers, attended tobacco coalition meetings, and spoke at voter education events.

Members attended committee meetings and built on relationships with local policymakers made by previous student volunteers.

Supporting outreach on the biomarker campaign—making calls and emails to representatives, tweeting to Governor Newsom on #CallOnNewsom, and raising awareness at schools.

Sent volunteers to represent ACS CAN at Youth Quest 2023 at Sacramento, CA.

Created career-skill focused opportunities for students like website design, power analysis and policy research skills, and journalism.

We featured young leaders like Aditya in speaking about how they uniquely combine culture and advocacy. We also led and spoke on panels with the Vice President and President of ACS CAN.

We sent representatives to the first young leaders summit held by ACS CAN and served as advisors on how to start a state-based or regional organization for youth and young professionals in Chicago.