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Student Named Priorities
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Across Lane County, students are not only sharing what’s not working—they’re also naming bold ideas, real-time solutions, and the supports they need to thrive. Whether through cross-district summits, student design team sessions, or youth-led workshops, students are consistently identifying patterns and priorities that can guide meaningful change. This page shares what we’ve heard directly from students across Lane County — their priorities, their concerns, and their solutions.
What We’ve Heard from Students
We’ve compiled summary reports that reflect student vision and wisdom — not just as feedback, but as a roadmap for what’s possible when we lead with students at the center.
We’ve compiled summary reports that reflect student vision and wisdom — not just as feedback, but as a roadmap for what’s possible when we lead with students at the center.
Student Listening Summary 2025.pdf2025 Student Priorities
Insights, Priorities & Invitations for Action from Lane County Students
This year’s county-wide Student Voice Summit was rooted in the theme “We Will Save Us,” a call to action and affirmation of student power, resilience, and imagination. Co-designed and facilitated by the Student Voice Design Team, the summit brought together over 260 students from 12 districts, with 27 student-led sessions and 51 youth facilitators.
The event centered healing, identity, and justice through interactive workshops, art, storytelling, and community connection. Students led sessions on topics like affinity spaces, school safety, anti-racism, mental health, and curriculum transformation — all grounded in lived experience and collective wisdom.
“We Will Save Us” reflected what many students already know: that systems don’t change without them, and that they are already doing the work to build more caring, inclusive schools and communities
2025 Leading Together: Lane County Youth Leadership Summit
Focus: Mental health
The Leading Together Summit was a request from youth in Lane County who served in leadership roles within nonprofits and agencies, interested to learn about other organizations' work and priorities, and to share resources and connections. A planning team of student leaders from 5 different organizations worked together to create this event - which brought together 58 student leaders from 12 youth-serving organizations and school-based groups across Lane County. The goal was to build relationships, share experiences, and name bold solutions for youth mental health, belonging, and community healing.
Co-facilitated by the Lane ESD Student Voice Design Team, the summit created space for cross-district collaboration and intergenerational dialogue between students and adult allies. Through youth-led workshops, visioning activities, and deep discussions, students shared powerful insights about the mental health challenges they face — including isolation, adultism, and the lack of culturally and identity-affirming supports.
The theme “Leading Together” reflected the summit’s central belief: that students are not leading alone — they are organizing, imagining, and advocating in ways that require adults to show up differently. The summit called on educators, leaders, and partners to recognize and respond to what students are already building: networks of care, creativity, and change.
>link to Leading Together Summary Report
Want a more detailed look into the Leading Together summit? Check out the evauation report led and created by our partners in the CoLab at University of Oregon!
Q.U.A.C. 2024/25 Listening Sessions: LGBTQ2SIA+ Needs Across Lane County
Q.U.A.C. 2024/25 Listening Sessions: LGBTQ2SIA+ Needs Across Lane County
Queers Unified, Acting for Community (Q.U.A.C.) is a student-led initiative created by and for LGBTQ2SIA+ youth in Lane County. Students chose the name Q.U.A.C. to reflect the joy, courage, and unapologetic community power at the heart of this movement. Q.U.A.C. was born out of a partnership between Lane ESD and Queer Eugene (supported by a grant from ODE) to recognize the need for dedicated supports for Queer students in Lane County schools (a request and priority named by students).
Queers Unified, Acting for Community (Q.U.A.C.) is a student-led initiative created by and for LGBTQ2SIA+ youth in Lane County. Students chose the name Q.U.A.C. to reflect the joy, courage, and unapologetic community power at the heart of this movement. Q.U.A.C. was born out of a partnership between Lane ESD and Queer Eugene (supported by a grant from ODE) to recognize the need for dedicated supports for Queer students in Lane County schools (a request and priority named by students).
In the 2024–25 school year, Queer Eugene visited GSAs and student groups at 25 schools, hosting 68 in-person visits to listen deeply to student experiences and dreams. These Listening Sessions surfaced themes of isolation, safety, visibility, and the urgent need for identity-affirming adults and spaces. Students shared what’s working, what’s missing, and what it feels like to navigate school as LGBTQ2SIA+ youth in a region where support is often inconsistent and uneven.
In the 2024–25 school year, Queer Eugene visited GSAs and student groups at 25 schools, hosting 68 in-person visits to listen deeply to student experiences and dreams. These Listening Sessions surfaced themes of isolation, safety, visibility, and the urgent need for identity-affirming adults and spaces. Students shared what’s working, what’s missing, and what it feels like to navigate school as LGBTQ2SIA+ youth in a region where support is often inconsistent and uneven.
This work directly informed the creation of district-specific resource guides, student-designed community events like Pink Party and Pink Prom, and new professional development resources for staff. More than a program, Q.U.A.C. is a movement led by students who are creating the schools and communities they deserve.
This work directly informed the creation of district-specific resource guides, student-designed community events like Pink Party and Pink Prom, and new professional development resources for staff. More than a program, Q.U.A.C. is a movement led by students who are creating the schools and communities they deserve.
Questions to Prompt Thinking
Questions to Prompt Thinking
& Action
& Action
For Students:
For Students:
What does student voice look like in your school?
How are decisions made with you — not just for you?
What’s one change you’d like to see in your school, and who could you partner with to make it happen?
How could these reports support your advocacy, campaigns, or leadership work?
For Educators & Administrators
For Educators & Administrators
Where do students currently have power in your building?
What would shift if students were included in policy, curriculum, or school culture conversations from the start?
How might these reports spark new ways of collaborating with your students?
Tools & Next Steps
This work isn’t just about listening — it’s about what we do with what we hear.
This work isn’t just about listening — it’s about what we do with what we hear.
Explore our Resource Hub for tools to support student voice, affinity groups, and healing-centered practices
Be in touch with Lane ESD's Student Voice Specialist to brainstorm how Lane ESD can partner with you to bring student voice into action
Join and/or invite students to join the Student Voice Design Team or submit feedback for future topics and resources
Use our contact form to tell us what resources you’d like to see added
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