Sacramento Youth Summit Fosters Leadership and Advocacy for Solidarity in Action (SIA) and Peace & Justice students

Bishop O’Dowd High School joined hundreds of Catholic students and their teachers from across the state on Monday, April 20, 2026 for the Jesuits West California Laudato Si’ Youth Summit. This spiritual and civic pilgrimage focused on three core pillars of justice, in accordance with Catholic Social Teaching: immigrant rights, ecological justice, and housing equity. The O’Dowd delegation was composed of 16 seniors from the Solidarity in Action (SIA) leadership team and 50 juniors currently enrolled in Peace & Justice, applying their studies of Catholic Social Teaching from the classroom to action in the Capitol.

O’Dowd students engaged in face-to-face meetings with legislators to advocate for a slate of high-priority bills. In the realm of Immigration Justice, students lobbied for AB 1633 to tax private detention facilities and SB 1422 to protect Medi-Cal benefits for undocumented adults. On the Ecological Justice front, they championed SB 868, which would allow residents to use portable "balcony solar" panels without utility fees, and pushed for the reintroduction of the Public Lands Protection Act (AB 1624). Finally, students addressed California’s housing crisis by supporting the $10 billion Affordable Housing Bond (AB 736) and the Tenant Protections for Immigrant Families Act (SB 1243). Their participation underscored a core O'Dowd belief: that faith is a call to action, and that youth leadership is the essential catalyst for a sustainable and just future.

The O’Dowd delegation held a meeting with Assemblymember Mia Bonta, Oakland’s state assembly member, to address these legislative priorities and give her their opinions on forthcoming state legislation regarding cell phone use in schools and social media age restrictions in California. We are grateful to Assemblymember Bonta for her time.

To prepare for the trip, seniors visited Peace & Justice classes for two sessions focused on the practice of legislative advocacy and the specific legislative priorities of Jesuits West. For the seniors, the experience was also an opportunity to mentor the next generation of activists. "I learned how to be confident in unfamiliar spaces such as at the Youth Summit and in the Capitol building," shared SIA senior, Ocian Floyd-Haskell. "It was challenging but fun to prepare the juniors as I enjoyed using the skills I've learned over the year to help them develop them as well."