2022 McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge

There are many ways to spend a Friday in the month of May, but for four middle school students, representing various parts of North Carolina, May 6 was a Friday to remember.

The students were selected as finalists in the 2022 McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge.  Out of nearly 20 video submissions, these four had the privilege of spending the day in downtown Raleigh as guests of the North Carolina Bar Foundation and the NCBA’s YLD Law Week Committee along with judges from the NC Court of Appeals, NCBA Leadership and other distinguished legal professionals.

The mission of the McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge is to encourage students to embrace and practice the principles of good citizenship by identifying local problems and proposing realistic solutions to those issues.  The four finalists proposed solutions to issues such as domestic violence, opioid misuse, gerrymandering and teacher shortages.

Thanks to the hard work of a couple of students from Mills Park Middle School in Cary, two nonprofit organizations working to address community challenges will receive donations to help them pursue their critical work because of the NC Bar Foundation’s McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge program.  The North Carolina Association of Educators will receive $1,000 to address statewide teachers shortages in the name of Krish Attaluri, the 7th-grade student who won the competition.  Nisha Kasturi, an 8^th grader, was the runner-up and will have a $500 donation made in her name to Kiran, Inc to support victims of domestic violence.

The students joined two other finalists, one from Charlotte and one from Forsyth County, in downtown Raleigh as part of the NCBA Law Day celebration and made presentations to judges from the NC Court of Appeals.  The four finalists were selected from among 20 participants in this year’s competition.

Krish Attalori, a 7th-grade student from Mills Park Middle School in Cary won the competition and will have a $1,000 donation made in his name to the North Carolina Association of Educators.  Nisha Kasturi, an 8th-grader, also attending Mills Park Middle, was the runner-up and will have a $500 donation made in her name to Kiran, Inc., to support victims of domestic violence.

Liam Campbell from JM Robinson Middle School in Charlotte and Avary Herman of Hanes Magnet Middle School in Winston-Salem rounded out the “Final Four” that joined the 1st and 2nd place finishers for the NCBA Law Day Celebration held at Brooks Pierce Law Firm in Raleigh. The students were able to celebrate Law Day with other NCBA YLD competitions such as moot court, poster, and essay contests.

The NCBA Law Day celebration receives support from the Young Lawyers Division, the North Carolina Bar Foundation Endowment, and North Carolina Bar Association and Foundation staff.