Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab celebrates graduating Fellows

This April, the Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab (Y-Lab) celebrated the graduation of the 2026 Class of Fellows, 13 students who dedicated themselves to the immersive learning community throughout their 2L and 3L years.

Launched in 2021, Y-Lab brings together the Education Law Clinics and Child Advocacy Clinic under a unified program committed to building child-serving systems that are trauma-sensitive, healing-centered, and antiracist. Fellows complete three semesters of clinical work and pursue individualized pathways through coursework, writing projects, and a capstone, ultimately developing deep expertise in the complex challenges facing young people in legal and social systems.

At the graduation ceremony, Y-Lab leadership Michael Gregory, Jodi Guinn, and Crisanne Hazen shared remarks honoring each member of the cohort, reflecting on their scholarship, clinical contributions, and the distinctive paths they carved through the program. The event brought students, faculty, staff, and loved ones together to mark the culmination of years of shared commitment to youth advocacy as the 2026 graduates head off to pursue what’s next.

For graduating fellow Kaveri Sengupta ’26, the Y-Lab experience was defined as much by community as by coursework. “Y-Lab has been such a highlight of my HLS experience,” she says. “I feel so lucky to have built wonderful relationships with fellows and faculty and to have had a home on campus centered around education law and youth advocacy.”

“I found it especially meaningful to be part of the Education Law: Strategic Litigation Clinic and work directly on the KSVT v. Commonwealth of Kentucky complaint, and then develop a youth participatory litigation framework for my capstone project that drew on firsthand reflections from young people involved in that groundbreaking process.”

That sense of belonging centered on a shared mission has been a defining feature of Y-Lab across cohorts. The program’s home in the Yellow House serves as a gathering point for students whose interests span juvenile criminal defense, disability advocacy, homeschooling reform, foster youth policy, and beyond.

Congratulations to the 2026 Y-Lab Fellows!