The History of the Sun Youth Forum

The Sun Youth Forum was established in 1955, by Hank Greenspun Founder and Publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, as a way for students to comment on major issues of the day.  It is a unique program in the U.S. not only for its format but also because of its longevity.

The first Sun Youth Forum was held in 1956 in which 96 students from five high schools participated.  In 2019 approximately 1,000 juniors and seniors from 53 high schools and high school programs participated in the Sun Youth Forum at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The Sun Youth Forum, sponsored in cooperation with the Clark County School District, follows the format set in the early days by Ruthe Deskin, assistant to the publisher, who served as director of the Sun Youth Forum for 43 years.

Each high school, using various criteria, selects a number of juniors and seniors to attend the Sun Youth Forum.  Traditionally, the students have been from government and social studies classes.  At the Sun Youth Forum, they are divided into small discussion groups according to seven topics: Home in Nevada (state issues), Teen Topics, School Days (education issues), Around the World (international issues), Law and Crime, Potpourri (a variety of topical issues) and America (national issues).  The students learn about the topics in their classes, so they are prepared for their discussions.

The discussion groups are moderated by prominent community leaders that include senators and congressmen, state and city officials, lawmakers, business executives, educators, and community activists.  It’s an opportunity for students to meet and interact with these leaders, and it’s also an opportunity for the leaders to gain an insight into – and hopefully an appreciation for – students’ views and suggestions for change.

The goal of the Sun Youth Forum is for the students to speak out and the adults to listen.  The role of the moderator is to facilitate the discussions, not to inject their own opinions or lecture the students.

Students not only express their opinions and exchange ideas, but they also often come up with solutions to some of the problems they discuss.

Room Representatives are chosen from each discussion group to summarize their groups’ opinions with the Las Vegas Sun newspaper; appear on a television panel at the Hank Greenspun School of Communications at UNLV; discuss their sessions on KNPR, radio program; and appear on Vegas PBS television program Nevada Week.