A Guidebook for Advocacy
Washington Student Engagements Network, WA-SEN, built a student-led advocacy network across the state of Washington. This how-to guide explains how you can use their proven method to jumpstart your own advocacy project and make your voice heard.
Anyone can learn how to testify in committee! Watch the original “Use Your Voice to Shape the Future” video series to learn how you can speak out on issues that impact you.
Advocacy is for everyone, not just for experts.
Use these free resources to jump-start your project and make your voice heard.
About the Guidebook
Who is this for?
How does it work?
WA-SEN developed a proven method to teach advocacy skills quickly to a wide, diverse network of students across the state of Washington. Each academic year, a new group of students learned storytelling skills, built relationships with each other and with legislators, and influenced higher education policy. Over a period of eight years, we repeated and refined the method.
We’ve set down what we learned in this guidebook to share with anyone who wants to amplify their voice and influence decision-makers.
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
Alumni and others interested in the work of WA-SEN, please reach out to us as we chart our new path for the future.
©2025 Independent Colleges of Washington. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). You are free to share and adapt this work for non-commercial purposes, provided you give appropriate credit.
The copyright holder grants the Gates Foundation license to make, use, sell, distribute, and create derivative works of this material for the purpose of achieving Global Access.
I support student advocacy.
Let us know if you’d like to be informed about advocacy resources and opportunities in the spirit of the Washington Student Engagement Networks.