ALA Students Honored at San Antonio City Council

At CAST Schools, students don’t have to wait until adulthood to become community leaders. They are encouraged to identify the issues that matter to them, develop their own ideas and solutions, and use their voices to create change.

A group of seventh-grade students from the Advanced Learning Academy demonstrated that kind of leadership all the way to City Hall this week, receiving special recognition from District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito during the September 3 San Antonio City Council meeting for their project about cleaning up Woodlawn Lake.

Mr. Foster’s students were honored after earning second place in the middle school division of the statewide Speak Up Speak Out Civics Fair, hosted by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at The University of Texas at Austin in the Spring of 2026. The team advanced to the state competition after first earning recognition at the San Antonio regional Speak Up Speak Out Civics Fair hosted by CAST Schools.

Speak Up Speak Out challenges middle and high school students to identify issues affecting their communities and develop solutions through research, collaboration, and civic engagement. For the ALA students, the experience provided an opportunity to put those skills into action and demonstrated that young people don’t have to wait until adulthood to participate meaningfully in their communities.

Their recognition in City Council Chambers brought that experience full circle: young people being celebrated by their city’s leaders for using their own voices and ideas to make a difference in their community.

Help put Youth Leadership in Action. Your support creates more opportunities for young people to find their voices, engage with their communities, and develop the confidence and skills to lead.