Ayaan Moledina

Ayaan Moledina (he/him) is a Pakistani-American 11th grade student in Austin, Texas who first got involved with activism at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, at age 10, when he worked on public health and pro-vaccine policy and grassroots campaigns. Since then, Ayaan has worked on multiple public health, education, youth mental health, and civic engagement policy campaigns.

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Given Ayaan's lived experiences with mental health, he is passionate about providing resources to struggling youth and expanding suicide prevention resources for students across the country. He believes youth have the power to bring people together, and he strives to help unite legislators, advocates, and citizens around important issues affecting youth.

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Ayaan has served in various roles, including at the U.S. House of Representatives and the Texas Legislature. He has worked on organizing advocacy campaigns and awareness events in partnership with various institutions, such as The White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Education, featuring leaders like President Biden and Vice President Harris.

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Ayaan has been honored by organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Texas, Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Texas Gun Sense, The Westly Foundation, and The Congressional Award Foundation.

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Ayaan serves as the Federal Policy Director at Students Engaged in Advancing Texas or SEAT, a movement of young people developing transferable skills and demonstrating youth visibility in policymaking by seeking a seat at the table. He spearheads local action, grassroots organizing efforts, and state and federal legislation touching issues ranging from mental health, suicide prevention, and youth civic engagement to education, racial justice, and gun violence prevention.

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Ayaan has written various pieces of legislation at the federal level, including H.R.5725 and H.R.5706, based on his lived experiences, which focus on mental health crisis response practices. At the state level, Ayaan has written bipartisan legislation to enable school districts to have a student member of their school board. Locally, he has successfully advocated for increased funding for 24/7 mental health crisis response in Austin.

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Additionally, he is an Executive Council member of Team ENOUGH which works to educate young people about gun violence and mobilize them to take meaningful action to prevent it. He serves on their Policy and Legislation Committee, working to engage young people across the country in legislative advocacy and helping them be aware of state and federal actions around gun violence prevention.