The Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the sponsor of The Fulcrum, has also recently launched the Democracy Architects Council. Through this fellowship, changemakers ages 18-28 across the country receive the skills, mentorship, and community needed to turn their ideas into real impact. The story below is one example of what's possible when young people are given the tools and support to lead.
Sahana Srikanth, Founder of Young Learners Foundation
State: Ohio
Age: 17
When Sahana began noticing how many children lacked access to books and literacy resources, she was struck by the scale of the gap. In the United States alone, 32 million children grow up without books in their homes, and many schools and organizations in low-income communities cannot afford to purchase them. Motivated by her lifelong love of reading and belief that literacy should be accessible to everyone, Sahana founded the Young Learners Foundation.
As Founder and Executive Director, Sahana launched a series of book drives to bridge the gap between book-rich and book-scarce communities. Through these efforts, she has organized the donation of more than 18,000 books to youth-serving organizations across 10 U.S. states and three countries, saving families, teachers, and students an estimated $153,000 in educational costs.
Beyond distributing books, Sahana works directly with young people to build confidence in reading and language skills. She has organized free literacy mentorship programs, spelling bees, and vocabulary workshops that have reached more than 150 students, ensuring that literacy development opportunities remain open and accessible to anyone interested.
Through Civics Unplugged, Sahana connected with peers working to address similar challenges in their communities and collaborated to expand opportunities for youth involvement. Because of the CU Fellowship, she joined another CU Fellow’s organization, EcoBrothers, as a Youth Council Member, where she created a guide to help others organize and run successful book drives.
To support this work, Sahana has received competitive grants from organizations including The Hershey Company, the Contribution Project, and the Matt Kurtz Foundation. Her initiatives have benefited schools and youth organizations ranging from local health center literacy programs to Boys & Girls Clubs and international partners such as the African Library Project.
Through the Young Learners Foundation, Sahana continues to channel her passion for reading into action—connecting thousands of young people with books, mentorship, and opportunities to discover the joy and power of reading.
Learn more at www.younglearnersfoundation.org
Civics Unplugged provides high school-aged innovators the skills, mentorship, and community needed to create impactful solutions to the problems that matter most. Since our founding in 2019, we’ve graduated more than 5,000 Fellows worldwide from our tuition-free programs and provided $1.5 million in direct funding to Fellows’ initiatives. To learn more about us, please visit civicsunplugged.org.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."