Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers announced the winner of the 2024 Oregon’s Kid Governor®: Zoya Shah. Deputy Secretary Myers traveled to Findley Elementary for the announcement and to congratulate Zoya in person. Watch the surprise announcement here.

Every candidate for Oregon Kid Governor chooses a platform. Zoya’s platform is Creating Mental Health Awareness in Kids. To address her vision, Zoya outlines a 3-point plan of action:

Creating awareness, normalizing, and removing stigma.
Identify triggers that cause anxiety and depression.
Act to provide support and tools to cope with it.
Zoya’s campaign video can be viewed here. Zoya was selected from numerous candidates across the state by Oregon fifth graders.

“The Oregon Kid Governor is a great civic education program, supported by the Oregon Capitol Foundation and our office, to help teach young Oregonians how their government works. This bi-partisan program provides free toolkits and lesson plans that help celebrate Oregon democracy,” said Deputy Secretary Myers. “Thousands of fifth graders from across Oregon vote for their Kid Governor during the election cycle. The future of our state looks promising thanks to these impressive future leaders.”

The Kid Governor® program was created by the Connecticut Democracy Center in 2015 as a way to introduce civic education to fifth graders. In 2017, Oregon became the second state in the nation to implement the program. Oregon Kid Governor is open to all fifth graders in Oregon; those interested in running create a 1 to 3 minute video explaining:

Why they should be Kid Governor
Their leadership skills
A community issue that is important to them
Their three-point plan to address a specific community issue

Twenty-two videos were submitted this year and narrowed down to seven by a panel of independent judges. Once the seven candidates were finalized, fifth graders from schools across the state voted and selected Zoya as Oregon’s next Kid Governor. Zoya is Oregon’s seventh Kid Governor.

The other candidates included:

Bassem—Community Issue: Finding Friendship in Schools
Kaayva—Community Issue: Plastic Pollution is Hurting the Environment
Lydia— Community Issue: Conserve and Protect Oregon’s Resources
Phebe—Community Issue: Endangered Species
Remy—Community issue: Discrimination
Shaurya—Community issue: Prevent Racism

All the finalists for Oregon Kid Governor will now become Cabinet Members who will work to advance their platform and work alongside the Oregon Kid Governor to advance her platform.

To learn more about the Kid Governor program and to view all the candidates’ videos go to: https://or.kidgovernor.org/