Youth Research Council

We’re building a broader community of partners, allies, and young leaders who care about youth-driven research and change. Click the "Stay Connected" button below to stay in the loop and explore ways to connect, support, and collaborate with the YRC.

Check out the YRC’s most recent presentation about our methods and findings on the multiple meanings of school safety.

The Youth Research Council (YRC) is a research collaborative and community-based experiential learning innovation. Launched in the Fall 2021, the Youth Research Council is a partnership of the Sociology and Anthropology Department’s Center for Social Science Research (CSSR), Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP), and Johns Hopkins School of Education Center for the Social Organization of Schools.

The YRC embraces a scaffolded model of learning with the goal to integrate students at various stages of the social science pipeline. High school students serve as YRC Fellows, while undergraduate and graduate students serve as research mentors and research assistants.

YRC Group Work 2 The YRC also aims to act in an advisory capacity to local and regional organizations, school districts, and governments as they conduct research about youth and advise university faculty and students on how to conduct research that speaks to the needs and builds on the strengths of youth.

In this work, the Youth Research Council has several guiding goals:

  1. To promote community capacity building and racial equity through research activities.

  2. Build a more durable student pipeline for the social sciences.

  3. Serve as a bridge between community area schools and George Mason University. Over the course of one academic year, YRC Fellows identify research problems, study them using rigorous social science methods, and offer evidence-based recommendations and solutions for change. The YRC imagines social research as a critical component of contemporary civic education goals. The goal is research for impact.

Thanks to the YRC’s partnership with the Early Identification Program, which has existing collaborative relationships with area schools, the YRC co-directors conducted outreach and student recruitment across all high schools in Prince William, Fairfax and Loudon County as well as Alexandria City, Fall Church City, Manassas City, and Manassas Park. All area students enrolled in 9th through 12th grades were eligible to apply; 36 students from 20 different high schools are 2021-2022 YRC Founding Fellows.

For more on the YRC, check out this video from our first year:

Or from our second year:

For more information, please contact:

  • Meagan Call-Cummings at meagan.call-cummings@jhu.edu
  • Amy Best at abest@gmu.edu
  • Khaseem Davis at kdavisi@gmu.edu
  • Mia Hines at mhines20@gmu.edu
  • or yrc@gmu.edu

YRC Group Work 6

This project is a partnership between:

  • George Mason University
    • Center for Social Science Research
    • Early Identification Program
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Education 
    • Everyone Graduates Center

  • Georgetown University School of Medicine