San Luis High Student Urges Lawmakers to Protect Colorado River Water

Junior Figueroa walked into the Arizona State Capitol in early March with one message for state lawmakers: Yuma County's farms, families, and future depend on the Colorado River, and its declining water levels can't wait.

Figueroa, a student at San Luis High School and member of the RAZE Leaders program, made the trip to Phoenix to speak directly with legislators about what water scarcity could mean for agriculture in the region. He was joined by fellow Yuma County students also participating in the program, each bringing their own community-rooted concerns to the Capitol.

The RAZE Leaders program trains high school students to research issues affecting their communities and build campaigns around them. It operates through several levels, moving students from learning research skills to selecting topics they care about to engaging the public with advocacy campaigns. For Figueroa, that topic was unmistakably local: the Colorado River supplies the lifeblood of Yuma County's agricultural economy, and he wanted lawmakers to understand how directly those two things are connected.

Other students in the group took on different issues but shared the same experience of speaking truth to power, some for the first time. Ciara, one of the students who made the trip, focused on civic participation. "I talked about voting and why youth should start voting as soon as they can," she said. Another student, Isabella, credited the program with reshaping how she sees herself. "I can assure you that the first version of me that came in is not the same one speaking here," she said.

That transformation ran through the entire group. Students said the experience helped them find their voice and pushed them to speak up on issues they might once have left to adults to decide.

The visit raises questions still worth tracking: which lawmakers met with the students, whether any policy follow-up is planned, and what specific data on Colorado River reservoir levels and Yuma County irrigation allocations the students brought with them. Those details were not provided in initial reporting on the trip.

For students like Figueroa, Ciara, and Isabella, the point of going to Phoenix was not to wait for those answers. It was to make sure legislators knew that young people in San Luis are watching what happens to the river, and they are already learning how to hold them accountable.