-A lot of us, high school students feel that, you know, they feel disconnected with politics and government and civics education is a great way to bridge that gap.

-Surekha D'Souza's Law and Society class is focusing today on civic action projects.

The goal is to encourage students to find solutions to real issues they're passionate about, like making clothing drives more accessible.

-Our mission statement is that we wish to encourage the residents of Mountain House to donate their old clothing and shoes to a good cause, and work towards finding a convenient way for them to do so.

-While one semester of government is required for all high school seniors, not all schools provide civics education.

D'Souzas class at Mountain House High School is part of a growing effort to change that.

The curriculum is influenced by Teach Democracy, a Los Angeles based nonprofit that provides civics education resources to encourage students to engage in democracy.

For most of the year, students strengthen their public speaking and legal skills through mock trial competitions.

The class then transitions to civic action projects.

-I wanted it to be more of an engagement class where students could use the skills that they picked up in mock trial and put those public speaking skills and those civic knowledge skills that they acquired about, you know, case law on the Supreme Court, and then put that into action by getting involved in issues that they feel strongly about.

So for a little bit of background... I know a lot of people have concerns and comments to make, but not a lot of people actually step outside of their comfort zones to make these, efforts.

So I think it's really important to be both informed and engaged in civics -This is Devikas third time taking law and society.

Fitting for someone who wants to pursue a career in law.

Her group's project aims to increase student participation in city council, school board and student leadership meetings.

-We found is that people really care about what's going on aroun whats going on around them.

-Students surprise me every day with their creativity.

The projects are so, so different, and such a variety.

So I would never have thought of think, coming up with something.

But they did.

-Our presentation is, to summarize it, is basically giving high school students an opportunity to get paid or unpaid internships or in high school to help them, get jobs or get into colleges.

-Our presentation was that we wanted to open our middle school, curriculum, and the curriculum was for, was for mock trial.

After brainstorming, students conduct research on their topics and reach out to city and school leaders to see how they can implement their vision.

-And, what we did is that we emailed the teachers because we wanted to persuade them if they would be interested... -The schools principal, Doctor Adam Auerbach, encourages students to think deeply about who their projects impact.

This means there will be some disagreements.

That's what happened when Doctor Auerbach met with a group who wanted to bring back food delivery privileges to campus.

-So a couple of projects and in my dialog with them, when we met one on one, was how does this better the rest of the community?

So, yeah, some of those examples, a DoorDash program project that said, how does that impact the broader community?

Are there DoorDashers out of work because we don't have DoorDash in the high school, you know, at, so you have to consider those different constraints, and they don't get that unless they engage in this process.

-And like opening up the campus to any delivery driver just poses a security risk, because who could say a random person is a DoorDash driver?

There is no way to verify that.

-Conversations don't just happen with the higher ups.

Today's presentations are peer reviewed.

Students get the chance to ask questions and even challenge their classmates.

-I don't understand like why we would need AI because schools and just colleges have been teaching us without AI for years.

-Over time, humans have always made it their goal to become more and more efficient.

-I think civics is important just to be educated, because I think education is the first step to any type of problem or any type of awareness.

and it gets your brain thinking about real world problems.

-Mountain House High School encourages students to earn a State Seal of Civic Engagement, a recognition on their diploma for Excellence in Civics Education.

Completing a civic action project is just one way students can earn the seal.

-We are very proud, that this year, and Im especially proud of my seniors this year, five of my seniors will be earning on their diplomas, the state seal of civic engagement.

I believe that investing in civic education is investing in the future of American democracy.

-Civics is important because it's not only learning about government, but also helping the community.

-I'd say schools that are looking to engage in that same civic mindedness simply need to look at how they afford the time of the day.

To meet the needs of kids as they go out in the real world.

-And it doesn't matter how big those actions are.

It's a small action, and that lights up a spark and it leads to civic, engagement in the long run.

These are, high school students, but they are going to be our citizens.

They are our citizens, but they are going to be our future leaders.