Students participated in the Youth Leadership Conference at Lompoc High School on Saturday.
The conference was put on by California Freedom Summer, a project by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, in partnership with Future for Lompoc Youth and Lompoc High School.
The conference's purpose is to provide high school youth with the chance to engage in public speaking, nonpartisan voter registration and workshops on college readiness.
"I love sharing my story, and I love sharing where I came from, who my parents are, who my family is and that's the greatest part about it for me is giving that to other people,” said Matthias Taylor, a speaker at the Lompoc Youth Conference.
Participants said this has been in the works since July.
