New Student Organization Sets its Sights on the Nation’s Future While Honoring Kirk’s Legacy

by Sharon Rondeau

(Sep. 30, 2025) — As revealed by Antony Stark and Bob MacGuffie in their column published September 23 titled, “Kirk Assassination Unleashes a Patriotic Wave of Anti-Woke Energy on Campus,” a core group of students, some still in high school, launched “American Destiny,” a non-profit organization seeking to motivate young people to engage in the political process using their innate talents to bring about desired policy change.

The writers’ reference was to the September 10 murder of 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was addressing students at Utah Valley University when he was shot by a 22-year-old gunman on a nearby roof, according to investigators.

“If Kirk and TP-USA led the way by forcing Left-occupied campuses to recognize and respect conservative opinions via debate, American Destiny seeks to expose those who are responsible for the WOKE authoritarian takeover of Academia,” Stark and MacGuffie wrote in their column.

UVU was the first stop of Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour” featuring his signature “Prove Me Wrong” campaign in which he encouraged students to voice their opinions, engage in debate and be introduced to the concepts of “free markets and limited government.”

In 2012 at age 18, Kirk had a vision of reaching young people with ideas differing from those he viewed as “liberal” groupthink prevalent in schools and college campuses. With encouragement from seasoned marketing executive Bill Montgomery, who encouraged him to forego college to make his vision a reality, Kirk launched TPUSA from his parents’ home and unabashedly sought startup financing from major Republican donors, a task at which he proved highly successful.

“Turning Point USA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk,” TPUSA states on its website. “The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.”

Over the years TPUSA grew to encompass a faith division promoting “biblical truth“; an education arm; a “Blexit” division aimed at encouraging black Americans to abandon “the victimhood mentality”; and a high school program, Club America, “to educate students on the importance of freedom, free markets, and limited government—while building a strong network of trailblazers ready to lead in their schools and communities.”

Turning Point Action is the political branch of the organization, created “to equip and empower all generations to engage in grassroots activism and emerge as leaders in their communities.”

Kirk is author of six books, including “Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West” and another, “Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life,” not yet published. According to multiple news sources, within days of his death his books and “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast catapulted upward in ratings, with subscribers to his YouTube and social-media accounts increasing exponentially.

Despite Kirk’s shocking and untimely death, his widow, Erika, resolved the fall college tour would continue. Now the CEO of the sprawling organization, on September 21 Erika addressed some 73,000 attendees and untold millions observing her husband’s memorial service, to include her bold declaration of forgiveness for the assassin.

TPUSA‘s home page has been updated to state:

Charlie Kirk poured his life into building a movement rooted in faith, freedom, and love of country. He believed America’s future depended on raising up a generation who would NEVER SURRENDER.

That vision is alive and stronger than ever. Prayers are rising, support is pouring in, millions of students are rallying, volunteers are flooding in, and vigils are filling churches and schools across the nation. The fire Charlie lit is burning brighter than ever.

Now the responsibility is ours. We will honor his legacy by pressing forward—not slowing down, not surrendering. This is not a time to preserve what was built. This is the time to fight harder, grow faster, and unleash the true power of the grassroots machine Charlie created.

We will make Charlie proud. We will defend America’s future. And we will not stop until freedom prevails.

“The Kirk Effect” has reportedly resulted in a surge in church attendance, Bible purchases, and tens of thousands of requests to launch new TPUSA college and high-school chapters.

On Friday The Post & Email had the opportunity to speak with two of American Destiny‘s directors, Paige Shepard and Blake Consentino, about the organization’s goals and strategy and their plan to implement them.

Shepard is a college sophomore, while Consentino is a freshman; both grew up in Connecticut.

The idea to organize came about approximately nine months ago, Consentino told us, but was significantly accelerated after Kirk’s assassination.

The group’s motto is “Be the change.”

We began by asking if they view Kirk’s untimely death as being on the same historical level as those of President John F. Kennedy in 1963; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968; and Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968, to which Consentino responded, “I would say so. I also think part of it goes beyond what those assassinations represented. To me this feels almost like what you saw in the early 19th century in this nation in terms of religious evangelicalism; a religious revival, really.

“I’m an orthodox Christian and practice in the orthodox church, and we have this ancient, ancient concept called Symphonia,” he continued. “Despite America’s lack of a single national faith, I’d say the Kirk Effect reminds me of a fundamental balance between a people, a nation, a faith, culture and values. That’s what Symphonia is. I’d say this modern realignment towards Christianity, especially with the young people in our nation, especially with Gen Z, fundamentally influences your politics, and it pushes all of us more towards the right. Without this moral foundation, we’re kind-of left without alignment, without a balance, and that’s why I think the left is so volatile, because a lot of them don’t have a moral foundation. I think that’s why so many of us admire Kirk, and why I would say, at least personally, his killing is a lot more impactful than those others.”

“I would say it’s really personal to a lot of college students because he was talking to us and coming to these college campuses and just trying to have a healthy discourse,” Shepard said. “He was giving left-leaning college students an audience to voice their opinions and back up their views. If Charlie Kirk can get shot for moderate Republican views, we can all get shot for our views. It’s a very dangerous premise to be operating on: that it’s OK to have political violence if the person is saying things that you don’t like.”

“Did either of you ever see Charlie Kirk in person?” we asked.

“Yes, I actually met Charlie Kirk before,” Shepard responded. “I am involved with Turning Point at my college, and we have these chapter leadership summits and student action summits. I was chosen to have breakfast with him and several other students, so I got to sit down and have a conversation with him. He was awesome; he was exactly how he presents; he was a man of God; he was searching for the truth, and he was really passionate about engaging with Gen Z and the younger generation. So he came to us, and he was asking us about the dating scene, because that was something that was very important to him.”

“So his death must have hit you very hard, to say the least,” we said.

“Yes, it definitely did,” Shepard replied. “I was personally very upset. But I think even people and college students who didn’t meet Charlie Kirk were heavily impacted by it, and I think it is, to Blake’s point, the spiritual aspect, that it just feels like an attack on Christianity and an attack from evil. It feels very dark; I think everyone can sense that.”

“What do you think young people need or are seeking? What were they looking for when they went to hear Charlie Kirk even if they thought they disagreed with him vehemently?” we asked.

“To me, I think structure,” Consentino replied. “I think the broad liberalization of the Western world has seen lots of order and tradition. First of all, faith and a structure regimen to the church provides that, and I think that’s why you’re seeing people flocking to the church these days. And on top of that, too, I think they were seeking tradition.

“I think my generation grew up in a very interesting time. Our very early years were right before all of this ‘woke’ stuff had taken root in the cultural nexus of this nation. I remember growing up with my mom reading me stories of European knights in shining armor rescuing princesses, and the early American pioneers. I didn’t have a lot of internet access as a kid, so that was my experience and outlook on the world. Then as I grew older I began seeing these things either in real life or on my phone and was exposed to the way the world was degenerating. It was very shocking. I had a very visceral reaction to what I was seeing versus what I was taught that the world was going to be. I’d say seeing my nation change in terms of our morals, in terms of our people, in terms of a lot of different things, was very shocking to me.

“I’ve been political since I was about 12. My mom ran for local office when I was around that age. I helped her campaign and then I immersed myself in political theory. I think that’s how I ended up where I am now. I would definitely say young people are looking for tradition, perhaps not ancient, but something our ancestors had, and I think that’s what part of this realignment is.”

“I feel like we’re looking for something that transcends the material interests of the world,” Shepard said. “We’re searching for Christ. We need Him more than ever now, because if you look at our society, people are depressed, they’re mentally ill, they’re overweight, they’re unhealthy, and they’re just unhappy. I feel like a big part of that is that we’ve lost Christ, and we’ve lost sight of what makes us happy.”

“Fundamentally, the modern world is poison,” Consentino added, “whether it be pornography or drugs or any of these vices that are so easily accessible to young people that are almost pushed on us.”

“Yes, they’re encouraged,” Shepard said, with which Consentino agreed.

Consentino shared he is practicing strict abstinence until marriage, a value in which Kirk firmly believed. “I’ve had a lot of people in the past try to push me to not do that. It’s kind-of like a culture thing.”

“Is it the parents’ fault that their children are troubled?” The Post & Email asked. “What is it that wasn’t done to give your generation a stronger mooring?”

“I have very strong opinions on this even though I am not a parent yet myself,” Shepard replied. “I think there’s a big myth that parents can let children do whatever they want. ‘My child says he doesn’t want to do “this,” so I let him’ or ‘My child wants to wear a dress to school, so I let him.’ I think if you let your child do whatever they want to do, they would never brush their teeth, they would never go to bed, they would eat candy all the time. You can’t let your child do whatever they want to do. I think it’s foolish to say that you can’t push virtuous things onto your children; it’s good for your kids to know Christ and to do moral activities and to read and play outside. I think a lot of the difficulty is that there’s social media and so many conflicting opinions on how you should raise your kids, so parents are taking inspiration from the internet. I think kids need structure, no screen time, and they need Christ. I think that’s what gone wrong with our generation.”

“Paige and I had two very different family structures,” Consentino revealed. “Paige had two parents who set her on the right path, and that was very helpful to her growth. My mom raised me completely on her own. I definitely had some pitfalls; I wasn’t always on the straight and narrow path I am right now. A lot of women are raising kids on their own, and I think part of this issue we see today is a lack, not just of men in children’s lives, but the lack of strong men, men who are willing to say the uncomfortable truth and make their children do the uncomfortable things, as Paige was saying. I think not having men like that, not just in children’s lives but broadly in society, is one of the biggest pitfalls dragging us down.”

“I do have more hope for the next generation of children that Gen Z is raising because Gen Z has seen and experienced the impact of this breakdown of the family unit,” Shepard said. “Our generation has been the consequence of divorce, with divorce being a common thing, which is not right, and then you have these broken households that were left to just pick up the pieces. So I truly think there will be a big push with Gen Z parents for long-lasting marriages and strong parents.”

“Where is American Destiny based? Are there chapters, as with Turning Point USA?”

“We are based in America,” Shepard replied. “Our main goal is to connect college and high school students with political campaigns and opportunities to get involved in politics and as a way to create a conservative grassroots push across the nation. So we will be operating all across the nation, connecting kids with these campaigns. It’s really going to create a nationwide, bottom-up push to conservative ideas and beliefs, and at the same time it gets a whole new generation of students involved in politics. So it’s a way to combat some woke indoctrination that they might be experiencing in their school, just to get them in the field and get them involved. It sets up their careers as well.”

“We want to engage students throughout the country who are already political in the civic process,” Consentino explained. “We want to show them what it looks like, what the inner workings are, give them real, tangible hands-on experience. While TPUSA acts as more of an evangelical bulwark against woke indoctrination, we look for the kids who are already on our side, use that as human capital, taking their time and skills, and multiply it by putting them somewhere where they can make a tangible change for our nation.”

“Does that mean using a particular skill set or placing them physically somewhere?” The Post & Email asked.

“We take the people who are already involved, and whatever campus they’re on, based on their chapter, we give them tools to identify people who are already like us, who are already on our side, and then we bring them into our group,” said Consentino. “From there, essentially whoever’s running that chapter has the oversight to place those people where they’ll be most effective. What that means is they’re going to be looking either for a political campaign or for a political cause. Say someone is very good at video editing, then they are now working as a video editor for a campaign or for a pro-life group or something like that.”

“Would you ever attempt to convince someone who may not share your views?” we asked.

“I think that would be more up to the individual chapters,” Consentino replied. “They’re free to do that, but the main focus of our organization is not to evangelize.”

“Would American Destiny members get involved in congressional or state-level legislation?”

“That’s the hope,” he said. “We’re at a place right now where we’re still in the startup stage. We had a longer timeline as to how we were going to go public, but I feel like what happened, what — three weeks ago now — solidified the fact that we have to act now, that it’s now or never. We can no longer sit idly by.

“Right now we have about half a dozen people at the forefront leading the organization, and we’re in talks with 2-3 dozen affiliate people who are pledging to start a chapter when we’re ready to go in the springtime for the midterms. Once we launch in that capacity, that is the hope.”

American Destiny will hold a memorial, “For Charlie,” on October 10 at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. To our questions about its purpose, Shepard responded, “We want to create an area where people can honor Charlie Kirk’s life and come together and experience companionship with people who are like-minded during this difficult time. We’ve talked about it; everyone can feel it; there is a big evil that is lurking behind the shadows of this assassination. I think it’s really important for us to come together and create change out of this. We don’t want it to be an event that is swept under the rug or used for bad. We want to take Charlie Kirk’s life, honor it and use it for good and push forward the vision he had for America. People don’t need to bring anything other than themselves, their ideas and passion.”

To contact American Destiny, please go here.

[Update, 10:15 PM EDT: As a result of the impending government shutdown, the “For Charlie” Memorial may not take place as planned.]