The Buckeye Youth Council placed second in the recent DemocraSeed Final Showcase. 

Its winning social media campaign talks about teacher appreciation through the hashtags #ilovemyteacherchallenge and #ilovemybuckeyeteacher. 

The campaign encourages the community to show appreciation for teachers by writing a nice note for them or giving a simple “thank you” gift and post these deeds to social media using the official hashtags. 

The council chose the topic because teacher pay and retention is such a huge topic in the state. 

Council members were honored April 4 at a luncheon at the state Capitol. The student members of the Youth Council also had the chance to meet with several state representatives to discuss issues the state is currently facing. 

DemocraSeed is a program created by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation team of Arizona State University, which aims to increase interest in civic engagement, creative problem-solving and entrepreneurship among high school students.