Growing Good Citizens, one summer at a time

November 19, 2025  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

Waterbury student Susannah Rye is the grand prize winner in the Seven Days Good Citizen Challenge. Photo by Caitlin Hollister

So much of our public debate these days centers on polarization from families to Congress, a deep divide over upcoming election processes, and worry over the information ecosystem as social media and internet voices eclipse traditional sources of facts.  

It’s enough to make one wonder about the next generation and how they will navigate their roles as citizens in the 21st century. What will they see as their obligations and contributions? What factors will shape their understanding of history and current events? Will they participate in civic life, and what will that look like? 

Here in Vermont, the folks at Seven Days newspaper aren’t waiting to find out. Their now 8-year-old summer Good Citizen Challenge project is charting a fun and educational path for dozens of Vermont youngsters to think about those questions. They’ve figured out a way to get kids in grades K-8 to spend time during their school vacation to work on learning about what civics is and what it means in their communities, their state, and beyond. 

The newspaper last week published the results of the 2025 Good Citizen Challenge, where some 183 students from around Vermont spent time on specific tasks, logging their progress along the way. 

The challenge list had 25 activities focused on learning about their communities, local history, government and current events. The more tasks the participant completed, the more chances they had to win prizes like weekly drawings for gift cards to Phoenix Books, tickets to Vermont Lake Monsters games, and even a grant to pass along to a nonprofit they care about. 

According to challenge organizers, the youngsters from around Vermont completed a total of 963 activities such as picking up trash along a trail, visiting a historic site and reading a community newspaper. The most popular options were  “Attend a Community Event,” “Go Jump in a Lake or a Public Pool,” and “Borrow Something From the Library,” the paper reported. 

And while those may sound like just fun things to do, those who took the challenge to “Organize Support for a Cause” together collected nearly $2,700 for various causes they support. 

Six of the students completed every activity on the list, including 11-year-old Susannah Rye from Waterbury. This was her third year doing the challenge, the second time she checked off the entire list. Full disclosure: For the “Talk to a Journalist” assignment, Susannah interviewed this reporter (last year she interviewed Roundabout photographer Gordon Miller).  

For her diligence, Susannah was awarded the Good Citizen Challenge’s Grand Prize, which includes an upcoming trip to Washington, D.C., courtesy of contest sponsor Milne Travel. Susannah and the other five finalists who completed the list will be acknowledged at the Vermont State House during the upcoming legislative session.

Here’s a link to the Seven Days story about the contest. The full details are in the December edition of the Seven Days sister publication, Kids VT. 

Some highlights are interviews with each of the six finalists who did all of the activities, including Susannah, as well as others who qualified for some of the challenge’s unique prizes – for example, the student winners in the team category named their team after their history teacher. 

Next year, keep an eye out for colorful “future voter” stickers to be handed out to kids at the polls on election days. The Vermont Secretary of State’s office will create and distribute them using three designs featuring art by the winner and the top two runners-up in the Good Citizen Challenge. The artists were students ages 7, 9 and 13. 

Seven Days Deputy Publisher Cathy Resmer says the Good Citizen Challenge will be back in 2026. Look for those details in Seven Days and Kids VT in May.