Meet the Winner of the Top Class Actions E-Cigarette Awareness Scholarship!

College freshman and Broomfield, Colo., native Peyton Biggers is adjusting to campus life, but she recently earned something that may help ease her transition to higher education.

Peyton has been awarded the Top Class Actions E-Cigarette Awareness Scholarship, taking home the award after winning an essay contest.

Her essay stood out among the 41 entries in part due to its focus on the work she has done in her local community to try to put an end to teen vaping.

Peyton has been involved with a group called Broomfield Youth for Youth, which she describes as a group of local youths who are passionate about the factors most likely to make teens and other youths participate in healthy activities while avoiding risky behaviors.

“It’s the youth group that’s connected to the Communities That Care, which is an initiative focused on building stronger communities,” Peyton said.

Peyton has has completed two summer internships with Broomfield Youth for Youth and has spent one full year on the group’s council.

Turning Research into Legislation

Last summer’s internship focused on vaping prevention. Peyton said the research she did during that internship inspired her to go before the Broomfield Board of Health to try to get them to implement changes to the city’s vaping ordinances.

She said the research focused on vaping policies around the country and on advertisements used by vaping companies.

“And we realized that a lot of them were specifically using colors and designs that targeted youth,” Peyton said. “And we were really concerned because it’s illegal to sell tobacco to people — at that time — under 18. So we are really concerned on why these companies, especially Juul, were targeting a younger population when that’s illegal.”

Peyton said she and her fellow interns worked in groups to create videos focusing on policies they thought were going to be most crucial moving forward — especially in Broomfield, which at the time had a vaping rate three times the national average.

“So it really was a problem in our community,” Peyton said. “And so we were looking specifically at raising the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 and expanding the smoke-free areas in Broomfield to include vaping, as well.”

The final policy they advocated for with their videos was the addition of a tobacco license requirement, which would allow local officials to regulate businesses selling tobacco in Broomfield. Peyton said although policies existed at the state level, she wanted to see the regulation being done on the city level to ensure everyone was following regulations.

Broomfield passed all three of those regulations within two months after Peyton’s intern group spoke before the Board of Health, she said, adding President Donald Trump enacted legislation a few months later raising the minimum age for buying tobacco in the U.S. to 21.

She said while the interns’ proposal allowed the city to add more restrictions in the future, she was not aware that any had been added since the policy was adopted.

While she was nervous to go before the board, Peyton said, she was also excited and practiced as much as possible.

“I was a little bit nervous, but mostly I was excited to be able to share my perspective,” she said. “It definitely wasn’t an opportunity that everyone got. There were only three high-school-age students presenting, and then some adults that worked with us, as well. And so I was really just grateful for the opportunity.”

Overall, the process to implement the new policies took about a full summer from start to finish.

Peyton said she felt empowered and like her voice was valued when she saw Bloomfield, and later Trump, had implemented the changes.

“And it made me want to continue to stay involved with politics and civic engagement and staying updated and on news and being able to help others, whether through nonprofits or different avenues for that, but it definitely empowered me.”

Approaching the Broomfield Board of Health about vaping was just one of Peyton’s civic projects.

She also spent three years on the Rise Above Colorado statewide Teen Action Council, which has a broader focus on substance abuse prevention. She said a lot of “numbers-based campaigning” takes place in Colorado due to that organization.

“And the reasoning behind that is if you have positive messaging and using norms to prove that not everybody is using substances, then that makes people less likely to try it because they don’t feel like they’re in the minority of not trying it.”

She also worked on another project with Broomfield Youth for Youth that helps people find and discover their individual strengths in order to create a stronger community.

“And we focused on connectivity and resiliency during this time of COVID,” Peyton said. “So through that, we created resources for our peers and also worked with local community leaders in order to make sure that people felt connected during this time and were able to lean into their support.”

Like many other high school seniors’ spring semesters, Peyton’s experience was not what one would consider typical, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Peyton says her Legacy High School graduation ceremony was canceled but added the school put a lot of effort into making the seniors’ experience special despite the unusual circumstances.

“But we did get to have an individual ceremony where my parents were able to watch me graduate,” Peyton said. “And then at the end of July, we actually had an outdoor ceremony, too, where we were, like, socially distanced but we still were able to graduate with the rest of our class.”

College and Beyond

Peyton is taking a full course load and says while most of her classes are online, some of them are a hybrid of online and in-person.

However, she says she is living in the dorms this semester, so she’s still getting to enjoy that part of the college experience.

Peyton says she has never considered a career in politics. She remains confident in her decision to seek a bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis in marketing.

Still, she says she plans to maintain her community involvement.

“I’d still want to stay involved with local politics and just pay attention and make sure I’m researching issues that are important,” she said.

The Colorado native says she chose the University of Colorado at Boulder because it’s close to home and has a great academic and social environment.

“And I’m studying at the Leeds School of Business, which is like CU’s Business School, and Leeds provides really great opportunities, especially in-state.”

Peyton already has plans for that business degree.

“I want to work in marketing for nonprofits, specifically, so I’m able to use the marketing that I’m passionate about and really apply that to nonprofits, which are able to help people as well,” she said.

But, she says, she doesn’t know at this point whether she’ll be staying in Colorado.

“I love this area. … I think Colorado is a really beautiful state,” she said. “But yeah, just wherever there are opportunities, I definitely plan on following those.”

Aside from her essay’s obvious anti-teen-vaping message, Peyton says she hopes her essay conveyed the message that anyone is able to truly affect change in their community if they take notice of what’s happening around them and form an action plan.

“If you are able to do the research and figure out and find something that you don’t think is right, you can definitely take the action steps and figure out where you can contribute.”

Top Class Actions chose the issue of e-cigarettes and teens as the topic of our first-ever student scholarship because it aligns with our mission of Helping Right Consumer Wrongs. We have watched the devastating impact the vaping industry has had on teens and have worked to help families seek justice for the deceptive advertising by e-cigarette companies and the serious side effects some have suffered as a result. Read some of our coverage about these issues here and here.