Mariel Wolter could spot leadership potential in students long before they saw it in themselves. And once she did, there was very little chance of saying no.
She didn’t ask students to join YMCA Youth in Government. She told them.
For the students she recruited during three decades of teaching social studies at Nicollet Junior High in Burnsville, the stories are remarkably similar across generations. Mariel had a gift for spotting potential before students recognized it in themselves. She opened doors they never would have walked through on their own and trusted them to find their voice once they stepped inside. To honor her legacy, her former students have spent the years since finding a way to keep that door open for kids she'll never meet — through the endowment fund that now carries her name.
“Mariel had a way of seeing a student’s potential aptitude and knew they just needed a little push... I’d probably still be a kid sitting in the back row, never raising my hand, if she hadn’t pushed me to join Youth in Government,” said Jay Kim, a former student of Wolter’s who became a longtime Youth in Government participant and supporter.
At Kim’s very first Youth in Government meeting, he tested the waters cautiously until his peers had other ideas.
“Next thing I know, the other students said, ‘We need someone to run for office.’ They look at me and say, ‘You, you’re going to run for office!’ I wouldn’t be surprised if Mariel had something to do with that,” Kim recalled.
The confidence he discovered in those early debates helped shape a career in law, leadership, and lifelong community service.
Bill Davidson’s story began much the same way, in a school hallway. “You know, Mariel would see you in the hallway; she’d harass you a bit until you signed up. That was me in the ninth grade,” Davidson said.
Wolter recruited Davidson in 1979, and he remained involved for the next four years, eventually serving on the state steering committee.
“You learned a lot and were exposed to so many different people around the state. I was later asked to attend the first National Affairs Conference in 1982, where I was one of seven Minnesota delegates. All of that proceeds because of Mariel.”
That conference is known today as the Conference on National Affairs (CONA). Decades before he would spend more than 35 years as an appellate attorney, Davidson discovered his legal voice during his first appellate argument as a Youth in Government participant.
Kim's and Davidson's stories, just a year apart, follow a familiar pattern. Again and again, Wolter identified potential in young people long before they saw it in themselves and encouraged them toward opportunities that would shape the course of their lives.
Her influence extended well beyond the students who sat in her classroom.
Kulani Moti did not encounter Wolter in a school hallway but in her own kitchen through a lifelong family friendship. When Wolter encouraged Moti to join the program in the 1990s, her mother’s response was swift: “You’re doing this. This is not a democracy; you don’t get a vote!”
Moti joined the Northwest Delegation that met at the New Hope YMCA and found herself in an unexpected position. “I was leading. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was a junior in high school leading multidisciplinary meetings, interacting with the governor’s office and the legislature, feeling a little nervous and scared, but holding my own because of Youth in Government,” shared Moti.
Moti carried that experience into law school and later a career in public service with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Yet beyond the legislative skills and civic knowledge she gained, the lesson that most shaped her leadership was one she first encountered through Youth in Government: servant leadership. “I am quite content stepping back and creating an environment for other people to shine, which is a very Mariel thing to do,” said Moti.
That philosophy, seeing potential in others, investing in it wholeheartedly, and then stepping aside so it can flourish, is the essence of Wolter’s legacy. For three decades, she empowered young people to discover their voices, claim their place in civic life, and lead with purpose. It remains the heartbeat of the Youth in Government program today.
When Wolter retired in 2005, Jay Kim quietly reunited generations of Youth in Government alumni for a surprise celebration. One by one, former students stood to thank her for the role she had played in their lives before unveiling a lasting tribute: the Mariel Wolter Endowment Fund for Minnesota YMCA Youth in Government.
The endowment did more than honor a beloved teacher. It transformed gratitude into opportunity.
Today, the fund helps ensure that young people can participate in Youth in Government regardless of their financial circumstances. Students who never knew Mariel now benefit from the same life-changing experiences she spent decades championing. That is the unique power of endowment and legacy giving. While annual gifts meet today’s needs, legacy gifts create a lasting source of support that continues investing in future generations. They allow the values, passions, and people who shaped us to keep making an impact long after we are gone.
Long before that reunion, Wolter’s former students had already begun investing in the future of the program that had shaped them. Davidson’s support of the YMCA spans more than 25 years, from capital campaigns to annual giving. Kim has included the YMCA Center for Youth Voice General Endowment Fund in his estate plans while also supporting the annual fund and Mariel’s named endowment. Moti has remained deeply connected since her freshman year of college, volunteering and giving back year after year.
Mariel Wolter passed away on February 18, 2026, at the age of 93. She can no longer stop students in the hallway and tell them what they are capable of. But her former students have ensured that work continues through her namesake fund, creating opportunities for future generations to discover their own voices.
As Davidson reflected, “Each investment in the endowment is a bet on the next young person who hasn’t found their voice yet. It’s seed corn planted now for a harvest you may not live to see, but that will matter just as much.”
Legacy giving is an act of faith in the future. Mariel Wolter spent her life investing in young people she believed could change the world. Through the generosity of those she inspired, that investment continues today, and will continue for generations to come.