One of New Hampshire’s youngest lawmakers is launching a summer civics camp of sorts for high schoolers with one goal: inspire them to public service.
Rep. James Thibault, a 20-year-old college sophomore from Franklin, is calling his venture Live Free and Lead. Students selected to participate will spend 12 days over the summer meeting with lawmakers and state officials. They’ll also write a mock bill and argue it before lawmakers.
Thibault, a Republican elected at 18, said Live Free and Lead is about civics, not politics. Speakers will include Republicans and Democrats as well as New Hampshire's secretary of state, commissioner of education, an archivist, and a judge. The program is free but students must apply by May 18.
About two dozen students will be selected.
“Their time is going to be hearing from the people themselves and they can develop their own opinions and thoughts,” Thibeault said. “I think that's far more important than just me lecturing at them for hours on end.”
Thibault said his own experience in youth civics programs and conversations with students inspired the idea.
“They really want a voice in the policies that affect them,” he said.
Thibault is studying politics at Saint Anselm College, a shift from the career he initially envisioned in computer science.
“I sort of had this crisis of conscience going into high school of like, ‘What am I going to do with my life after I graduate?’” he said. “Then Covid hit.”
More specifically, it was his high school’s mandated mask policy, which he thought was arbitrary, led him to politics.
Thibault said he also witnessed his sisters struggle to get the education support they needed.
“So all of that culminating together made me want to pursue a career in public service,” he said.
Before Thibault graduated high school, he served on two state youth advisory councils and was one of two New Hampshire students selected for the United States Senate Youth Program in Washington in 2024. He sees Live Free and Lead as one more option for students interested in civics.
Thibault is wrapping up his first term in the House and his sophomore year.
Thibault hopes students will leave the program with this: “A sense of their own public service within them that they can take back to their communities and become leaders in their own right.”
Live Free and Lead requires students to arrange their own transportation to Concord. Thibault hopes in coming years to add a hybrid option to make it accessible to more students.