Young people want a future with abundant nature, where they can live healthy lives, where we measure not the volume of goods we own but the meaning in our lives and the strength of our communities, and one with an economy where no one’s well-being depends on another’s misfortune.
This year PIRG students took more than 83,000 campaign actions in 39 states on campaigns to help turn that vision of a better future into a reality.
Thank you for being a partner in the movement for a better future.
Putting a Premium on Progress
At a time when national politics feels more divided than ever, it’s easy to get swept up in scoring points instead of making real progress. This year, our student leadership team committed to focusing on campaigns that bring people together and deliver meaningful change in people’s lives.
We kicked off the year in Boston, where student leaders gathered for a week of strategy-setting and skill-building. Those conversations continued across the country as we held state and regional in-person trainings and planning sessions. More than 500 students participated in discussions around what issues would bring our communities together around values that we share, and helped to decide our programmatic priorities
National change grows from local roots
Many of the challenges facing this generation are baked into the way our systems currently operate—like a throwaway culture that fuels single-use plastics and electronic waste, or the absurd reality that we discard 40% of the food we produce while one in ten Americans struggles with food insecurity. The good news is that the solutions start close to home. By focusing on problems that our communities agree on and solutions we can implement at the local and state level, we can model what’s possible at the national level.
Take the right to repair. When consumers can’t fix their own devices, they’re forced to buy new ones—costing families hundreds of dollars a year and generating massive amounts of unnecessary waste. This year, Student PIRGs helped win major victories, with new Right to Repair laws passing in Washington and Oregon, and a bipartisan bill for military right to repair now introduced in Congress.
Food waste is another place where local action can drive national change. A third of college students experience food insecurity, even as nearly half of our country’s food goes uneaten. A major contributor is widespread confusion over date labels, which leads people to throw away food that’s still safe. Fixing date labeling standards would save an estimated 1.3 billion meals—about a quarter of all the meals Feeding America’s food banks distributed in 2022. This year, we helped pass a commonsense date labeling reform bill in California, and now a bipartisan version has been introduced in Congress.
Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for the critically endangered red wolf in North Carolina. Students from five campuses across the state are advocating for funding to establish more wildlife crossings to help protect the wolf, while also benefitting other wildlife while improving public safety. In addition to our state campaigns for more wildlife crossings, our team is advocating for a bipartisan bill that would make the federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program permanent.
In total, we helped pass more than 20 local and state policies this year, each one a blueprint for broader impact.
Training the Next Generation
Colleges teach students to think critically—but often stop short of showing them how to turn that thinking into action. Many graduate without ever learning how to engage decision-makers or participate meaningfully in democracy.
That’s where we step in. Our hands-on, in-person trainings equip students with the skills, strategy, and confidence to run effective campaigns. From lobbying elected officials to organizing visibility events or building coalitions, students receive professional coaching and real-world experience. They take what they learn in the classroom and apply it directly to pressing public interest issues—and in many cases, even earn course credit for their work.
This year, more than 1,000 students attended state, regional, and national trainings, gaining the tools to make real progress on the issues they care about.
As we reflect on these wins, one thing is clear: none of this would be possible without your support. Your investment and partnership helps us train the next generation of leaders, power campaigns that create tangible change in our communities, and build a movement that can scale local solutions to national problems. As we look ahead to the year to come, we hope you’ll continue standing with student organizers so we can keep giving young people the tools to shape a future worth celebrating.