Look at virtually any media report about our neighbor south of the border and you'll nearly always hear a hopeless tale of violence and poverty. Mexico is perceived in many ways as a lost cause to its more developed neighbors and allies.

One of the great things about Campus Reform is that we're equal opportunity promoters of conservative and libertarian leadership of all stripes. Sure, we all have our own pet issues and so do the student and youth leaders we assist. But whatever combination of hot buttons push your buttons, as long as they somehow reach the core of free markets, limited government, a strong national defense or traditional values, we want to help you succeed.

It'd be silly for anyone to tell you there is one kind of young conservative out there. There are more than can be counted: from traditionalists, libertarians, neoconservatives, paleoconservatives, and even Objectivists just to name a handful.  What's always amazed me is the broad intellectual diversity of the conservative movement.

That said, there are definite trends in the growth of the movement that we've received a first-hand look at out in the field. The next generation is making their preferences known in the 2012 Presidential caucuses and primaries.  

If voters 18-30 decided who would represent the GOP in 2012, Texas Congressman Ron Paul would win convincingly, winning nearly 50% of that voting group in Iowa and New Hampshire and a smaller but substantial first place share in South Carolina. But this isn't just a sign that young people like Paul as a better personality than the other candidates. His agenda and issue positions are in stark contrast to the others and are the main driver of his efforts.

Some older voters and activists might write this off as youthful idealism at work, since Paul's uncompromising views on social and foreign policy often run sharply counter to the existing Republican mainstream. But, in fact, Paul's statistical victories represent a change in attitude that could already be noticed on college campuses for the last several years. And if history is any guide, it is worth remembering that naysayers have been wrong before, when past conservative champions like Goldwater and Reagan also gave rise to unlikely, but lasting youth movements.  

Look at virtually any media report about our neighbor south of the border and you'll nearly always hear a hopeless tale of violence and poverty. Mexico is perceived in many ways as a lost cause to its more developed neighbors and allies.

But don't tell that to a class of more than 30 top students at Instituto Technologio Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), a prestigious private university in Mexico City that has graduated some of the country's top entrepreneurs, economists and conservative political leaders. And following this weekend, they are among the many thousands of graduates of our Bootcamp of Politics, the Youth Leadership School, which I and two of my colleagues had the privilege of presenting to this enthusiastic group.

These students, who favor free markets and limited, rule-of-law government will be quick to remind you that Mexico is also part of what we in the U.S.A. so often and so casually refer to as "America". For all its noted troubles, Mexico shares our history as another nation in the New World in which people yearning for freedom and opportunity sought refuge.

We already know that the vast majority of faculty members in higher education generally leans to the left. If our report on Deep Blue Campuses wasn't enough to corroborate that sinking suspicion many conservative students have in the lecture hall, our upcoming review of course catalogs from major universities around the nation will remove all doubt.

But faculty make-up is only one dimension in which conservatism is outnumbered, outgunned and regularly treated with intolerance.

The history of expanding left-wing power on campus would be far less eventful without leftist student activists themselves, who are often at the forefront of taking aggressive action in the name of the institutional change.

Whether it is the most recent development of some colleges teaching Occupy-themed courses or previous university occupations and protests that led to the development of ethnic and women's studies programs, the left is never afraid to make demands or set ultimatums.

They lobby effectively for their causes, even if their brand of lobbying sometimes involves unethical or unlawful activity. Beyond the university system itself, the left regularly uses university student fees to fund outside professional lobbying efforts in state legislatures across the nation. PIRGs - Public Interest Research Groups - are the main vehicle for off-campus lobbying efforts, and many of these organizations have built extensive financial relationships with student governments.