What started as an effort to dissuade student vaping in their schools, Fountain-Fort Carson District 8’s recently revived youth advisory council is expanding its reach and mission.

The council, colloquially known as the YAC, is preparing to host its first annual Youth Voice Summit next month to bring together local students and adults to identify and address youth-related issues.

The conference will feature local experts and speakers through three pathways for youth voice, substance abuse prevention and creating a student council.

“I think it’s been really good. I’ve learned a lot,” said Fountain-Fort Carson High freshman Kenzie Litzelman about joining the YAC. “Coming into this, I was very nervous about speaking in front of people, and now that’s like my biggest passion. And that’s why I wanted to be part of the conference: to be present and also speak there.”  

The YAC re-formed in fall 2024 after years of dormancy through state grant funding to combat youth vaping. The group’s efforts would soon connect them with local companies to create and distribute posters and public service announcements about the negative health impacts of vaping, along with new branding for the council.

Since re-establishing their brand and refining their message, students have also presented to classes and organizations about youth vaping and held booths at various community events and conferences.

While much of the YAC’s work continues to focus on reducing student vaping, YAC leader Sheena Beeman said it has expanded to include overall substance abuse prevention and student leadership.

“Last year, it was a lot more teamwork within the YAC to try and make progress in ourselves, and now we’re working on making our message heard outside of us,” she said.

Beeman said this year they have expanded their reach to the broader community and other local school districts, such as Harrison District 2 and Colorado Springs District 11.

She added that the plan is to host a statewide conference to educate and foster youth leadership so students can propose solutions to problems unique to their schools.

“Because, obviously, not every district has (a problem of students) vaping. Some other districts that we’ve heard from have issues with opioids,” Beeman said. “And, obviously, those can be very similar, but they’re not quite the exact same. So, we want it to be applicable to everybody.”

The idea for the conference came on the heels of members attending the national Joint Meeting on Youth Prevention and Recovery conference in Baltimore last year. While at the conference, the students realized they were the only high schoolers in attendance and noted its purpose was for them, but not necessarily with them.  

D-8’s Deputy Superintendent, Montina Romero, said that, with this in mind, the YAC’s emphasis on youth representation was intentionally reflected in the name of the conference.

“They were irritated with the adults who thought they were including youth when, really, they were just talking about youth,” she said.

She also noted that the YAC will return to the Baltimore conference this year as speakers to provide the youth voice that was previously missing.

“They really just took this idea that Lisa and I had about youth voice and, I don’t know, they just far exceeded my expectations.”

A trend in steady decline

The student-led campaign is among recent pushes to reduce teen vaping in the state, which led the nation at 27% in 2017. Since then, the statewide Healthy Colorado Kids surveys, conducted every other year, have reported these totals are decreasing. The latest survey conducted in 2023 showed 8.7% of high school students reported having vaped in the past 30 days.

Across the country, results from Monitoring the Future, an annual survey tracking substance use by adolescents, show that teen vaping has been decreasing every year since 2022 and is significantly lower than its peak in 2019-2020.

Since prevalent vaping in D-8 was the catalyst for reviving the YAC, members developed and distributed their own survey to learn the impact of their work across the district’s schools. Romero noted that the survey revealed a trend in students’ answers: out of 956 responses, 93.3% reported they weren’t vaping or using nicotine themselves, but 60% also thought it was “very common” among other students, and 28.6% thought it was “somewhat common.”  

She suspected that the limited number of bathrooms used by the student body may exaggerate the frequency of vaping in these areas.

“As it settles and becomes less attractive, I think that we’re going to find out, maybe, that we’re doing better than we thought we would around educating students, educating parents and that we’ll be able to have a greater impact based on the information that’s getting out there,” she said.

What’s ahead

The Youth Voice Summit will feature guest speakers addressing topics ranging from substance abuse, mental health care and community partnership to leadership. A keynote speech will be delivered by Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Rashad Wisdom, who will discuss resilience and overcoming adversity.

Since the YAC welcomes students in grades 6-12, they are inviting interested students from these grades. Litzelman added, though, that adults currently engaged with local youth are also encouraged to attend.  

“So, we have people coming from different school districts, people who work in youth groups or sports coaches who aren’t necessarily associated with the school,” she said. “So, it’s not just teachers, though we do also want teachers to attend because they have a lot of influence with students.”

As for the future of the YAC, the current grant funding is set to expire after the 2026-27 school year, and the focus will likely change as youth vaping continues to decrease. As to how this might look in the years to come, Romero said that the platform is now in place for students’ voices to be heard.

“Youth voice is limitless,” she said. “I think they can provide feedback on so many things that schools do that enhance their participation and acknowledge the value they bring as adults. I really think it changes what education is and that’s super exciting.”

People interested in attending can register through Fountain-Fort Carson D-8’s website.

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What:

Fountain-Fort Carson District 8 Youth Advisory Council Youth Voice Summit Conference.

Where:
Fountain-Fort Carson High School, 900 Jimmy Camp Road, Fountain, CO 80817

When:
April 24, 2026, 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. There is no school that day. 

Who:
6th-12th graders and adults who work with youth.

Cost:
Free to attend. Lunch will be provided.