Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Speaks to Capital Region Students at Inaugural ‘future Leaders Fireside Chat’ Ahead of 2025 State of the State

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Speaks to Capital Region Students at Inaugural 'future Leaders Fireside Chat' Ahead of 2025 State of the State

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed new investments in education and youth mental health at a fireside chat with hundreds of high school and community college students. The proposals build on the Governor's commitment to making the State a place where residents of all ages have access to the resources they need to thrive. They include expanded access to youth mental health services, launching a college-in-high-school opportunity fund and providing funding for new apprenticeship programs in high demand occupations. Governor Hochul also announced that she will introduce legislation in her FY26 Executive Budget to restrict cell phone use in K-12 education, following on her historic legislative action to protect kids on social media. These 2025 State of the State proposals follow previously announced initiatives to boost the Empire State Child Tax Credit, increase child care options and provide free universal school meals.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Jane Fanning, Student at Guilderland High School:  All right. Good morning, everyone. Governor, it's such an honor to be here today, moderating our first-ever "Future Leaders Fireside Chat." So today, we're going to dive into some of the big ideas from your State of the State that directly impact us - the students and young people of New York. So we're going to be covering a few initiatives from mental health support for teens, to career opportunities and getting a head-start on college, as well as other recreational opportunities for youth, like sports and other youth centers.

So, I'm excited to also share a couple thoughtful questions from some of our students in the audiences. So, let's dive right in. First thing's first, Governor Hochul, you will be giving your State of the State address tomorrow and outlining your vision for the future. Many of us in this room are also looking to the future, whether it's college or whatever path we choose. So, I'd just love to start and ask you, can you share, maybe, what led you to becoming Governor of New York?

Governor Hochul: That's a long, long journey, Jane, but thank you to you and to Austin. You talk about future leaders, I think he's got a career in politics - just don't run for Governor any time too soon. And you as well, Jane - it takes a lot to do what you're doing, and I appreciate that. And Hudson Valley Community College, Mr. Copeland, our leadership here, our Chancellor John King and many others - thanks for having me.

It's great to see - you didn't all mind getting out of school today anyhow, right? Okay, I thought this was a great opportunity. Becoming Governor was nothing I ever entertained in my entire life, ever. In eighth-grade I took a social studies class like many of you did. I learned about government. I had a wonderful teacher, Mr. Peter James, who opened my eyes to the institutions of government, but also how government is a place where you can help solve problems and help people. So, I would say back then in school, I started really enjoying my social studies classes, took a trip to Washington, saw the beautiful Capitol Dome gleaming in the sunlight and thought maybe, someday, maybe I could actually work here for somebody else.

That was what it was like when you were a young woman many years ago - you didn't think of yourself as an elected official, you were always going to be the support behind somebody else. But what helped me a lot was what I did in high school. There was a BOCES program. Who's with BOCES? Anybody? BOCES program had a government studies program where I would take the bus. I got a chance to leave every day around noon. I had to skip lunch and study hall, and I think gym a few times, but I wasn't much of an athlete, so it didn't matter much. But I took the bus to go with other kids, and we could do an internship, and I decided to do an internship at Democratic headquarters.

And, believe it or not, this is the year that Jimmy Carter was first running for president. So, I worked on his campaign. I worked for Senator Moynihan who was the senator running for his first time. So I was there - this young high school kid, the only girl in the room, the youngest by far - and I was just absorbing all these people who so believed in politics as the way to get people to public life and to really serve their community.

So fast-forward, fast-forward - I can tell you there's probably another story, we can come back another time, but I decided to run for office at the local level to make a difference in my community. I thought that was the best job I'd ever have, Councilmember. Then I had an opportunity to run for County Office. Then I had a run for Congress. And then I became Lieutenant Governor. So, it was a sequence that- I'm telling you this because I don't want you to think you have to know your career path now. There's nothing that I just told you that I ever expected I'd be doing. I couldn't plan for it. All I knew is that I had to get the best education I could.

I became the student representative for the trustees and elected to student government at Syracuse University, so I saw the power of what people like Austin are doing and many of you who are in student government in your high schools. That's an important place to just test out whether you're comfortable in that arena.

Clearly, Jane is. I mean, this is a big deal to be able to do this. I didn't expect it, but life is like that. Just always be ready, and the foundation of it all is to have that good education, which is why, as Governor, I am prioritizing creating those opportunities, those pathways, the options. Whether it's an apprenticeship to get a job working with your hands, and building the roads, and highways, and our great buildings and our infrastructure, whether you want to work for State government - anybody have a parent or relative who works for State government out there? Grandparents, parents, friends, neighbors? I mean, this is a big job, a big employer, but it's not just an employer - it's an opportunity to serve at an extraordinary level.

So, I just want all of you right now to start thinking expansively about your future because you are at great high schools in this region. Or if you're at the community college, you're in a phenomenal organization - I've been out here a number of times. So, get that strong foundation of an education and there is no stopping you.

Jane Fanning: Absolutely. Sounds like it all starts in "Participation in Government" class.

Governor Hochul: It sure does.

Jane Fanning: We got some of those students out here? Anybody in "Participation in Government" these days? Yeah? Nice.

Governor Hochul: Do they still call it "PIG?" Okay, yeah, because I remember that.

Jane Fanning: Alright, I want to dive into one of the initiatives that I mentioned earlier. That's going to be our teen mental health first aid training program that you've mentioned. New York is already a national leader in this area with our new social media law, but if you could speak to what this first aid training program aims to do?

Governor Hochul: Jane, this came about because after I became Governor, we started seeing statistics about teenage mental health, the rise in depression, especially among young girls, suicide rates were speaking, spiking up, and I started asking, "What's going on here?" And it really came down to two factors that I identified, one was the lingering effects of the pandemic. What grades were you when the pandemic hit? Seventh-grade? You didn't hit your eighth-grade graduation. It was all remote, right?

That's a key time for you to be just hanging out with your friends, and participating in sports and getting to know new teachers - and that was robbed from you, right? It was stolen from you. You lost those critical connections at a time when you were 12, 13, 14-years-old, and you should've been able to break away. Instead you're relegated to your kitchen table, or your basement or your bedroom for a long time. Do you think that had an effect on anybody? Yeah. A lot of heads nodding. I say it still does, because that sense of security that I always grew up with, that my kids were able to grow up with - you didn't have that because you don't know whether this could happen again. Think about that.

Everything you knew was just so radically changed overnight. Your life was turned upside down, and I think it does something to you, and it affects the psychology of people who have to go through the trauma of this. I'm not saying that's an excuse, but also, at the same time, with the rise in addictive algorithms from social media companies, they were starting to bombard you with messaging that you weren't asking for. And if you were a teenage girl contemplating suicide and looking for help and you put in "suicide," these algorithms saw that and they would send you ideas on not how to get help, not who you could turn to, not uplifting messages to get you out of that mental state - they would send you messages on how to commit suicide.

So, there was something very dark going on at a time when you're isolated at your home, and I wanted to study that, but I started seeing that mental health has become a real issue for teenagers. And I'm a mom, and I wanted to help. So I said, "We should do much more." And I also know, your best friends, your classmates, spend a lot more time with them than you do your parents.

Your classmates can be that helpline for you. So, let's give you training. Let's get you to see the signs that you're not sure what they mean, but if we can give 10th graders and others tools to know what the signs are and how to counsel someone through a tough time - you could be literally the person who saves a friend's life, and that's powerful.

We also want to make sure that there's mental health services in every high school and every grade school. I went to one grade school and they said 40 percent of the students there were suffering from mental health challenges. That was never that case. It was absolutely unheard of.

So, I'm not saying it's anybody's fault - it's absolutely not. But, we as the adults and the policy makers have to recognize that you need some help, and I want you to have that freedom to blossom into highly functioning adults who are not held captive to these algorithms that are bombarding you all day long, holding you captive.

We got to talk about cell phones in schools. We won't do that today because it'll make me very unpopular, I'm sure, I did enough roundtables with teenagers in schools even around here. They told me, one young woman said, "You've got to save us from ourselves. We can't put it down because we're afraid we're going to miss something. Someone could be getting together in the girls room right now and I can't miss it. They're going to be talking about a party. They're going to be talking about what I'm wearing. They're mocking me out and bullying me." There's so much pressure on all of you, and I've got to help you with that. That's my job.

Jane Fanning: Absolutely. Thank you so much. One of the things that on top of all this pressure that we feel, peer pressure, etcetera - we're also planning for the future. We're 17, 18-years-old deciding what we're going to do with the rest of our lives. Maybe for those of us who don't know quite yet what we want to do, do you have any advice for somebody that's still testing out the waters?

Governor Hochul: Like I said, just what I did. There are so many opportunities for internships, even when you're in school, volunteer work. There are so many organizations that are looking for someone just to give your time. You can mentor young kids at a local club, at your church, or your synagogue or wherever you gather.

Your neighborhood has a little club for kids that are younger than you. You are of the age when young people look up to you as adults, literally. And there's a lot of young people. Some of you have younger siblings, you know what I'm talking about. You're the big guys. And I was 15 years old working on a campaign - 15, 16, 17 - it became my life. I never thought it would.

So, I'm just saying, whether you're interested in health care, go volunteer at a clinic. You want to help people, go down to a homeless shelter. There's countless ways that I'm saying right now, if you've got free time in your week, get out there and do this.

Now, selfishly, it also helps when you're applying for colleges, if you're going to go to college, right? They want to see that you've been engaged. You've not just been sitting here all these years and just focusing on your own lives, people want people who are outward thinking. And think about your contributions.

And I'm going to tell you something really grim to think about, they talk about the dash. You know what the dash is? On the tombstone, it's the day you're born and the day you die. The dash is your life in between that time. The question is, when you're getting as old as I am, what will that dash have meant? Will you have made a difference while you're here, or are you just going to take up space? Will you have made your community better, families better, the planet better, healthier? What is the contribution that you're going to make to justify your time on earth? Because that's how I'm looking at it.

That's how I look at my own life. Am I doing enough every single day? Because you don't get that day back, my friends. You don't get the days back. Every day must be viewed with urgency to do something for someone else or your community because that's why we are here taking up space. Don't forget the dash. That's what matters. That's what matters.

So, there's so many ways to contribute. You want to be an intern for me? Give me a call. I started as an intern. I was an intern for the New York State Assembly back in my first year of college. That's how I met my husband. It was a good catch. We've been married 40 years.

Be open minded. But have fun with it. Don't look at the future with dread. And we can talk about some of the other issues that might be on your mind, your parents' mind, and how to - everything's so expensive. You know this. You've been shopping for yourselves for a while.

I used to babysit. What do they pay babysitters now? Anybody babysit? What do you get paid an hour? $20?

Jane Fanning: Me as well.

Governor Hochul: $20?

Jane Fanning: It's pretty good.

Governor Hochul: I got $0.50. I thought I was doing pretty good. I'm glad you're getting $20. But you see everything you're buying at the mall going up, right? Or online? The prices are going up. I'm trying to put more money back in your pockets, your parents pockets and make things a little bit easier, because I know that's a stressor for all of you.

But whether you go to college, whether you want to work in an apprenticeship program, you want to go to community college, or a four year college, or get a Ph.D. or start work right out of college, right out of high school even, I will tell you one thing that should make you feel good, there are 460,000 open jobs in the State of New York right now. There is something waiting for you. So, do not stress about that part of your future. Go pursue something you love. Not a job, but a career in something you're passionate about.

And there are plenty of openings, unlike when I was growing up, and my own siblings had to leave because nobody could find jobs. It was a very different time. No jobs, unemployment was high, factories and businesses were shutting down. It is a whole new world for you out there, whether it's in technology, Micron you hear is coming. Did you hear about Micron? 50,000 jobs making semiconductor chips.

What we're doing here in Albany is extraordinary. Semiconductors, artificial intelligence - the jobs are going to be incredible. There's jobs that you will have that we can't even contemplate right now. And that's what's so exciting about the future. I don't want you to be anxious or nervous about it. Embrace it. Run into the future with open arms. Say, "Here I am."

Jane Fanning: Absolutely. You touched on a little bit of perhaps what students are dreading as they look to the future, right? I think one of the biggest things in that department is climate change. You mentioned the dash. I think a lot of us wonder if the year on the end side of that dash is going to be determined by our own life, or it's going to be determined by how viable the planet is to live on.

So, I'd love to touch on a question from Maya Preston from Columbia High School, and she asks, "As climate change becomes an increasing concern, what kinds of initiatives do you plan to take to mitigate the effects in New York?"

Governor Hochul: Outstanding question, and this should be on all your minds, and I'm sorry you have to worry about it, I really am. But when I was your age, I used to live near Lake Erie. Lake Erie was polluted. There was dead fish on the beach. At night, you could see the Bethlehem Steel plant where my dad and grandpa worked pouring what looked like molten lava, this orange lava looking substance, into the lake, polluting it every day. The skies were orange, not blue. That's the world I grew up in. I'm lucky I'm still alive. You don't go through that and not become a true environmentalist at heart.

We've made great strides because of policies out of Washington years and years ago. Richard Nixon, believe it or not, started the EPA; working on clean water, clean air, cleaning up our lands. But the challenges are so different right now.

We have to continue doing what we can, and just a week ago, or a week or two ago, I signed something called the Climate Change Superfund Bill, which says we have to have the money to build up the resiliency because the effect on climates is happening right now. You see it. And I want the large polluters who brought us to this place over many years of, oftentimes knowingly, using fossil fuels in a way that was so damaging, greenhouse emissions that we're suffering from right now, that they should pay for this and not the taxpayers of New York.

So, this is a massive bill. Only, the only other state that has attempted this is Vermont. I think other states should, but this also would be $75 billion over many years to help us start building up. That's one thing we can do, but we have to start this conversion, and I want to go faster. And I am nervous when I see Washington, the incoming president, talking about, for example, shutting down offshore wind.

We're proud of what we're doing with offshore wind. It's extraordinary. Manufacturing component parts up here in the Albany area, shipping them down the Hudson so these wind turbines are creating energy, clean energy, renewable energy off the shore of Long Island. This is the future.

But also geothermal. We're bringing transmission lines of hydroelectric power down from Quebec right past here so we don't have to be using traditional fossil fuel energy. And also, we should be converting into nuclear as well. And I'll tell you, if people worry about nuclear, it terrorized all of us when I was growing up. But I'm telling you right now, this is the way we have to do it. We have to find all the above in terms of renewables, and wean ourselves off the fossil fuels that have brought us to this place.

What I've said before is that we're the first generation to really feel the effects of climate change, but we're the last one that can do something about it. That is our responsibility to you. Wildfires never happened like this in a place like Los Angeles, but we had our own wildfires right here in the Hudson Valley just last summer. We had more tornadoes in the State of New York last summer than all of Tornado Alley combined. We had the hottest temperatures.

We had the most deadly blizzards in history. Seven feet of snow in my hometown last year, two years ago. It's happening, and I know this is frightening, but we are all doing something about it, and we have to continue working, not just as one state. We need all 50 states. We need every country on this planet to understand that we know the answers. It is not hard to figure out. We know what we have to do. We just have to have the moral courage to do it. And we sure have it here in New York, but we have to get others to follow us as well.

Jane Fanning: Absolutely. You touched on just now, having our entire nation come together and to help us work on these big issues. And I think another issue that young people are particularly identifying with right now is, in the wake of the November election, and seeing that the majority of New Yorkers vote opposite to how the nation ended up choosing. So I think this speaks well to one of our next questions.

It's from Shava Theil, the Averill Park High School, and she asks, "As Inauguration Day approaches, how do you plan to navigate agenda differences between your administration and the incoming presidential administration?"

Governor Hochul: This is very important. I represent every New Yorker. Regardless of party, regardless of whether they'll ever vote for me or if they voted for the incoming president - it does not matter.

It's my responsibility to represent all the voices of this State. I will carry that knowledge and that belief that I have an important responsibility to represent our interests when it comes to my relationships with Washington and the incoming administration. I have to do that. I can't say, "I'm not going to work with you because I disagree with you."

That doesn't get us where we need to go. I've always been a collaborative individual. I'll stand up for our rights. I will fight like hell to protect the rights of New Yorkers and those we hold dear and cherish. Reproductive freedoms, the right to a clean environment, to invest in education and take care of issues like homelessness and people in struggling.

I will always do that. Stand up for our LGBTQ+ community. Any community that's under assault, I will stand up strong. And I've conveyed this in conversations I've already had. But there's no reason why if someone wants to help New York, that I won't be their strongest ally in making that happen.

Whether it's helping bring more dollars to support after school programs or lunch programs. We're going to do free lunch meals and breakfast for kids to take away that stigma that happens when your parent doesn't make enough money and you have to be that young person. Everybody knows you're the one who's getting that free food. It sticks with you.

But if Washington helps us with many of these programs, at least now, I want to make sure that continues. But if they do anything to harm us, I'll stand up and fight, because I have to. Especially when it comes to that environment. I told you about offshore wind, they're threatening subsidies for offshore wind.

Now these newer technologies, they've been new - they've been used in Europe for a generation it seems. They do cost money, so companies have to be incentivized to do this. They won't do it on their own, but at some point it'll make sense for them to do it and they won't need any subsidies. But let's make this the norm. Supporting renewables, but if Washington removes their support for it, it's going to be more complicated for us without a doubt. But I have to be persuasive and say, "We're all in this together and the money that we're spending from cleanup, from the environmental damage to communities, is obscene."

We just had a thousand year flooding event on Long Island at Stony Brook University - young people were supposed to go in, they couldn't go, they were staying in hotels. The year before that, we had a thousand year flooding event in Hudson Valley, wiped out of downtown. The cost of restoring these communities back to what they were, it's enormous.

So we're paying the price. I have to be able to persuade Washington, help us make these investments now, don't take away incentives for clean energy. So we don't have to spend this money further down the road to repair communities that never should have been so damaged. So it's going to be complicated. It'll be issue by issue. I guarantee it, but I will roll up my sleeves and work with anybody who supports our values and will help New York.

Jane Fanning: Yeah, definitely. And like you said, issue by issue. One last thing we wanted to touch on before we wrap up was another question in regards to abortion rights. Ariana Costello from Albany High School asks, "In light of the ongoing national debate on abortion rights, how do you plan to position New York as a safe haven for out of State residents seeking abortion care, while also ensuring that New York's health care system can accommodate this potential influx?"

Governor Hochul: As soon as we found out that these Roe v. Wade - the law of the land for my adult life - that gave women the right to choose to have an abortion or not. Once we knew that was being struck down, I immediately put money into our health care programs so no one would be underserved.

We wanted to expand the clinics and hire more people - $35 million, we did immediately. We also knew then that we would be that safe haven for people, for women from other states. And it breaks my heart to hear the stories of women who've been traumatized and have had their own health compromised or lost a child that they wanted to have but because of some health complication, it wasn't safe for them to deliver.

Those are the stories that are coming out all over this country, and I feel so bad for the states. These are our sisters in those states as well. They're part of the American family, and they're suffering. So I said, "New York will be there, and half of all abortions are medication-assisted, medication abortions."

And so we have doctors here in the State of New York that could be threat from being prosecuted in other states if they prescribe this through telemedicine and send the prescriptions to their patients in another state. Our laws now protect those doctors from prosecution. And everybody wants to test that, we're here to protect our medical providers.

So these are some of the tough things that we didn't expect to have to do, but again just being nimble and ready and proactive and sending a message of where we stand as New Yorkers, but also having the money to support them and put laws on the books that are necessary. And I work with the Legislature very hard in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade to make sure New Yorkers were protected, but also we could be there as a lifeline for women across the country.

Jane Fanning: Absolutely. Thank you so much Governor for joining us today and sharing your vision to support students and families across New York State. So let's just give one final round of applause for the Governor everybody.

Governor Hochul: Thank you, everyone.

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