The National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) is a powerfully unique three-day experience of prayer, community, evangelization, catechesis, service, and empowerment for Catholic teenagers (of high school age) and their adult chaperones. NCYC began in 1983 as a regional conference, with one session for the east coast and one session for the west coast. The regional conferences had a few thousand youth in attendance. NCYC then merged into a national conference in 1991 and interest in the conference began to grow. Today, NCYC is the premiere Catholic youth event on a national scale that gathers people from all across America for a life-changing encounter with Christ.