My name is Ruthie and I am a junior at Giles High School. I have been in Y Street for three years with two years of Leadership Team experience. While working with Y Street I have spent a lot of time learning about the effects of tobacco and e-cigarette products. I have worked with my school and Y Street to educate youth and the community about these effects.

The FDA has been studying the number of minors using tobacco and e-cigarette products. After years of seeing the number of youth using cigarettes become smaller, the number of teens using other tobacco products and e-cigarettes has risen significantly. This change has been caused by the recent outbreak of products such as JUUL. E-cigarettes have been marketed to minors with flavorings and the untrue notion that these products are “safer” than other tobacco products like cigarettes. This has created an overwhelmingly large, new generation of nicotine addicts.

Recently, the FDA has been working to ban these products from the market. I have seen first hand the effects of these products in my school and community. I think the ban is necessary. People have been told by these vaping companies that their products are safer and healthier, so if the FDA came out with a ban on these products and evidence that people cannot ignore supporting their ban, it can make a positive change in the use of vaping products in the country.

While in Y Street, I have worked with my school’s administration and my peers to combat the rising number of teens using tobacco in our school and community. We have spread awareness of this issue at community events, during school lunches, and even at the Virginia General Assembly. Youth voices have become so powerful in the past years, and are continuing to gain power. By using our voices to advocate for positive change, there are no limits to the success we can have in our missions.

Hello, my name is Cali. I’m a junior at Manchester High School. This will be my third year as a
Y Street member and my second year on the Leadership Team. As a Y Street activist, I have
worked on many campaigns including Rev Your Bev. Through the Rev Your Bev campaign I’ve
surveyed a numerous amount of people about their drinking water habits and informed them of
the benefits of drinking water. This campaign has always been important to me because my
parents have always kept sodas in the house and I grew up drinking primarily sugary drinks.
When I joined Y Street I had no idea how much sugar I was consuming through these drinks or
how these drinks even affected me. I have very little free time but the past couple of years I
have managed to make as much time for Rev Your Bev as possible because this campaign has
affected me in such a positive way. I want to help others be healthy and drink more water too!

Manchester recently held an event on November 13, 2019, to participate in Rev Your Bev Day.
We had many Y-Sters from Manchester participate and collected over 200 surveys. The event
was so positive and very enjoyable to participate in. People were ecstatic about the fruit-infused
water and this motivated them to fill out the surveys. During the event, a freshman that I had
never met before came up to the table out of curiosity. The freshman was so interested in the
fruit-infused water and after he filled out the survey we discussed his drinking water habits. He
revealed to me that his family doesn’t really encourage him to drink water and sugary drinks are
a norm in his household. I was shocked because I had a similar experience growing up.
Stories like his are what keeps me motivated. His story confirmed for me that this is a more
serious problem than I originally thought.

Activism is a key part of changing behaviors in our community. With this particular campaign,
we encourage drinking water because sugary drinks have been linked to obesity and multiple
other health problems. Y-street is motivated to promoting a healthy Virginia and it starts in the
schools, as the youth are our future. With youth devoted to being healthy through drinking more
water, we can stop letting soda companies take advantage of us and risk our health. In the
future, Manchester’s Y Street club hopes to get everyone at Manchester drinking water through
fun events and activism. Eventually, we would like to make our dream of water being more
popular than soda come true.

Hello! I’m Olivia, a senior at Powhatan High School. This is my third year as a member of Y Street, and my first year on the Y Street Leadership Team (YSLT). I feel very fortunate to have joined the organization when I did because the past few years have allowed me to witness some incredible social change firsthand! Through the 24/7 campaign, an initiative to help all schools in Virginia understand, adopt, implement, and enforce comprehensive tobacco-free policies, we were able to accomplish some incredible things. Thanks to this, I have seen the impact that activism can have on a school, community, and state-level.



I was thrilled to work on the 24/7 campaign when I heard about it because although Powhatan already had a comprehensive tobacco-free policy, including e-cigarettes, many students would still vape or smoke outside of school and even attempt to do it on campus. It was heartbreaking to see my classmates exposing themselves to such health risks but our partnership with Y Street helped change that. Through collecting surveys, holding school events, sharing information, and posting signage, Y-Sters at my school and across the state worked hard to educate our peers on the health issues associated with tobacco and e-cigarette use and advocate for tobacco-free policies in all Virginia schools. All of the hard work paid off! Earlier this year both Y Street and the state of Virginia had a massive win: bills SB 1295 and HB 2384 passed and became law. This means that schools in Virginia are now required to develop and implement a policy to prohibit the use and distribution of tobacco products and nicotine vapor products, as well as include it in their student code of conduct.



Now, school environments across the state have drastically changed and for the better. At my school, two of my fellow Y-Sters and I were even able to attend a meeting with our administration where we were shown data demonstrating that reports of vape usage had begun to decrease greatly. Students, staff, and visitors are now more aware of the policy than ever and know the consequences and health problems they may face if they use tobacco or nicotine vapor products. The new law has also required schools to include disciplinary action in their policies and provide resources for staff and students to overcome nicotine addiction. This way schools can enforce a positive, healthy environment and keep their students and staff protected from health problems. Not only that, it has sparked conversation all around – not just in schools – on the dangers of vaping and tobacco use potentially leading to more changes. As Y Street continues to promote tobacco-free environments we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Hello there, my name is Idayziah and I am a senior at Hopewell High School. This is my second​ year being a part of Y Street and my first year as a member of the Y Street Leadership Team (YSLT). I got the opportunity to join Y Street last year. It was my school’s first year being a part of this amazing program. My school’s student council was ecstatic to start as I was too. This year was a bit different as we recruited at the beginning of the school year and had all diverse groups of people join us.

We hosted a training on November 12, 2019, the day before Rev Your Bev Day. At the start of training, we caught many of the trainees off guard with an impromptu photoshoot they had to take because it’s accustomed for us to take a headshot of new and returning members. As the chatter started to die down, YSLT members led the group into a fun ice-breaker called “Speed Friending” to get everyone warmed up and acquainted. From then on we got down to business! Our Youth Field Organizers, Lea and Mel, did an amazing job going over the issues that Y Street will tackle this year using numbers and visuals that intrigued the whole group. They helped explain the difference between equity and equality using a visual no one will forget. Mel and Lea went over in detail the Share The Air campaign and the Rev Your Bev campaign, respectively. They helped each new Y-Ster understand the goals of each campaign, the do’s and don’ts, and how we can help. Of course, all of this information could be tiring but Lea led us into a “Shakedown” exercise to get us all pumped up for more information before we went on to learn how to complete and collect the campaign surveys.

The training helped each of our recruited members to understand their duties as a Y-Ster and many were very excited to start. Rev Your Bev Day was the next day (Nov 13) and the new Y-Sters rocked out this event! The training helped me understand the viewpoint of the new members and how I could help them understand the opportunities they receive from participating in the program. Also, this training gave me and other returning Y-Sters a reminder on some of the things we value and advocate for in this program.

The training process is a critical part of understanding your role and what you are advocating for when you represent Y Street. It’s important to be in attendance so you know what you can do to help and most importantly have fun while doing service in your community. I am excited to be a Y-Ster for the 2019-2020 school year and I can’t wait to make a difference!