Mikayla Kelz is 16 and won’t be eligible to vote in the presidential election next November. But on Feb. 1, she was in Iowa reporting on the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus.

“I was speechless,” Mikayla said of the opportunity to cover a Ted Cruz rally – her first stop after touching down in the Hawkeye State.

Mikayla, a high school junior, is one of 12 teens selected to cover six major presidential election events this year in a new program launched by Envision, a nonpartisan organization that introduces kids to politics and other real world experiences. In the “Chase the Race” program, teens are treated like professional journalists with a TV crew and the works. The student reporters are there to get answers on behalf of their generation – and experience a pivotal moment in political history outside their history classes.