Opportunity Starts Here: Alexandria’s Youth Leadership Conference Offers Teens a Seat at the Table
High schoolers will connect, learn, and lead with help from city mentors, peers, and a powerful community of support.
ALEXANDRIA, VA – When Emma Beall saw a simple flyer as a 10th grader at T.C. Williams High School (now Alexandria City High School), she had no idea it would change the course of her life.
It was a call from the Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy (ACAP) seeking teen volunteers for a summer project involving writing, public speaking, and event planning. Beall, a rising journalist and regular contributor to the school’s Theogony newspaper, signed up. What she found was not just a summer experience, but a lifelong calling.
As Emma Beall told writer Mark Eaton in 2022, “That’s part of the work. You need caring adults who suggest that people apply for something they might not have known about because they are not as connected.”
More than a decade later, Beall is now the Coordinator of the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria (SAPCA), helping lead city-wide efforts to educate, engage, and empower young people to make healthy decisions—work that started with that very first summer project.
Her story is a shining example of what’s possible when teens are connected early to the people, opportunities, and resources that help them thrive. That’s exactly the goal of the upcoming 12th Annual Alexandria Youth Leadership Conference, taking place August 12–14 at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center.
“Young Voices, Powerful Choices!”
Open to all rising 9th through 12th graders who live in Alexandria, the conference is free and designed to empower students to become community leaders. Through interactive workshops, hands-on training, and a special networking session with local elected officials and nonprofit leaders, students will learn to lead, advocate, and connect.
Attendees who complete the full three-day experience will receive a $20 gift card and, more importantly, year-round access to updates about internships, volunteer positions, and youth leadership opportunities across the city.
But the true reward is harder to quantify.
“Prevention makes such a difference,” Beall emphasized to Eaton. “Starting early, having conversations early, but also just the importance of having caring adults… Being really intentional with those relationships is so important.”
Beall, who earned a Master’s in Public Health from Tulane University, credits early mentorship from ACPS and others for setting her on her path. Now she pays it forward through SAPCA, overseeing community initiatives like Drug Take-Back Day, National Fentanyl Awareness Day, and youth-led campaigns to discourage underage drinking and vaping.
As Beall noted, sometimes all it takes is one adult, one invitation, or one opportunity to change a life. She encourages all adults—parents, teachers, mentors—to encourage the teens in their lives to attend.
Registration and Details
- What: 12th Annual Alexandria Youth Leadership Conference
- When: August 12–14, 2025
- Where: Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive
- Who: Open to rising 9th–12th grade students living in the City of Alexandria
- Registration Deadline: August 8
- Register at: alexandriava.gov/ACAP
Students who attend will walk away with new leadership skills, valuable community connections—and maybe, like Emma Beall, a whole new sense of purpose.
