Germantown Academy senior Arthur Hu ’26 has been named a First Prize winner in the Bill of Rights Institute’s 2025 MyImpact Challenge, a prestigious national competition that recognizes high school students for outstanding civic engagement and service. Hu is one of just three students across the country to receive the top honor this year, earning a $7,500 award to support his ongoing work.

His winning project, PIVOT (Policy Insights and Voices of Tomorrow,) is a student-led youth policy think tank dedicated to boosting young voices in government and bridging the generational divide in American politics. The initiative began when Hu and his cofounders, Caleb Kurlantzick of Friends School of Baltimore (MD) and Saniya Yamin of Broad Run High School (VA), realized that young people, who will be most affected by decisions made today, are often left out of the conversation.

“With both of our past two presidents being over the age of 70 when they stepped into office, PIVOT’s other cofounders and I decided there needed to be a change,” Hu said. “Our goal was to create a platform that brings youth perspectives to the forefront of policy discussions.”

However, launching a politically-focused initiative did not come without challenges. One of the biggest hurdles, Hu noted, was ensuring that PIVOT remained nonpartisan while still supporting passionate policy writing. He said that they addressed this by pushing their writers to cut out "polarizing or harmful language" so that the emphasis was on the policies, and not party politics.

What began as a small blog-based project with ten student contributors quickly grew beyond expectations as PIVOT now includes more than 120 members from over 15 countries. Learning how PIVOT’s message resonated internationally has been one of the most surprising and inspiring parts of the journey, according to Hu.

At Germantown Academy, Hu has found mentors who have supported and strengthened his vision. He credits Upper School history teacher Dr. Kimmel with playing a particularly important role.

“Having somebody in the GA community who understands both policy and education much better than I do has made a huge difference in PIVOT’s development,” Hu said.

The impact of PIVOT extends well beyond its readership, however. Hu says that several student fellows, especially from developing countries, have reached out to share how their involvement has inspired them to pursue their own research and advocacy projects. In response, Hu and the PIVOT team are using a portion of the MyImpact Challenge prize money to provide financial support for these grassroots initiatives.

“I think the most rewarding part of working on PIVOT is seeing so many people excited to collaborate on a project that aims to make a real difference in this time of polarization and political apathy,” said Hu. “It’s incredibly energizing.”