Meet Julia Wee - Youthlinc's New Local Service Director

Hi everyone! I am beyond excited to be the new Local Service Director for Youthlinc. I couldn’t be happier in this new position and I can’t wait to meet everyone and work with you through all of your local service and international experiences!


I want to give you a little background on my life, who I am, and where my personal joy in service started. I am the oldest of 6 children, born in southern California and raised in Sandy, Utah. The family has since moved to Minnesota so I guess I have a little Minnesotan in me too :) . I attended Juan Diego Catholic High School and I think that is where my love for service really began. My family had always participated in service projects while growing up but in high school were required to complete a set amount of service hours every semester, not unlike Youthlinc requires a certain amount of hours be completed by our students. My sophomore year I completed over 100 hours of service and had such a great time volunteering as a counselor at summer camp, working at the 2002 Olympics, and serving at the Utah Food Bank.


After high school I attended the University of Utah and graduated with a B.A. in International Studies and Sociology. During that time I worked at the Lied Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salt Lake which was an amazing experience. I completed my international internship with the International Refugee Committee in Salt Lake City and did my study abroad in Oviedo, Spain. I was involved with UNICEF RED, a campus initiative group and assisted in starting up the Student Orphan Aid Program. My sorority, Pi Beta Phi, also kept me involved in service through our national Links to Literacy project. All of these experiences sparked my interest in this link between local and international service. After graduation I started trying to find a way to incorporate all of these experience into the next step of my life which ended up leading me to Youthlinc.

I was introduced to Youthlinc by my sister Olivia who was a student on the 2009 Mexico team. She came home with some amazing stories and as she explained the program I couldn’t believe how well it matched everything that I always thought service could be. I knew I wanted my own Youthlinc experience so… I made it happen. I was a mentor on the 2010 Thailand team and headed up the Cultural Exchange Committee. That trip made a huge impact on my life. I fell in love with the Youthlinc program and had the most amazing time with the students on that trip. I was incredibly impressed by the passion and willingness to serve that came from everyone on that team. I am so lucky to be able to continue to work with Youthlinc and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to do what I love full time!



I am going to give this position as the Local Service Director my all and I will being trying my hardest to fill the big shoes that the wonderful Ellie Nazzal has left for me. Please know that I am here and willing to help with anything involved in your Youthlinc experience! I’m excited to meet everyone and really get going. Thank you for all of your patience and support!

Meetin', Dancin', a little Snoozin', & the YWCA

Hey Youth Linc-ers, this is Meagan blogging about the Kenya 2011 Team's AMAZING retreat we had January 21st - 22nd.  Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I think I will let them do most of the talking so enjoy!!!

 We all met up at the Youth Linc office for our sleepover and then dug into some good dinner and brain storming in our different groups for what we will be doing in Kenya.

We all got to each make a puzzle piece to add to the big puzzle that was worked on previous by refugees who have come to Utah, we added our puzzle pieces to there's to show how we all fit together.

Let the games begin!!!  Of course the Kenya team knows how to have a good time, we started out with a few races in our sleeping bags.....

ENDLESS board games.....

And the best of all DANCING......

I think we have some serious talent here......  especially with the guys.

So in the early hours of the morning the Kenya team decided to get some shut eye... even if it was for three or four hours.

Then we headed off to YWCA to help where needed with different cleaning jobs

Team Leader: Scott Bawden, serving the popcorn to families at the YWCA

Kenya's Retreat turned out to be SO SO SO much fun!!!  Everyone got to know each other, make new friends, and start planning more and more for Kenya.  It is just around the corner and we were so excited to grow closer together, serve and plan for the big adventure coming up in July..  Thanks for everyone's hard work.

Hardly A Meeting! Dance & Service rocks our Mexico team

Yummy food, ROCKIN dance moves, and more great friendships--last Friday and Saturday were full of it all! Mike and Angie Denison let us raid their house for a sleepover retreat on Friday and by the time we left on Saturday, we all felt like we were leaving our second home.

Thanks to all of the team for bringing the food, which was completely filling and very delicious! If nothing else, we found out that our team can make quite the meal! We got a little taste of the food we will be eating while in Bautista Grande, Mexico and that alone got some of us even more excited to go.

Although the food was great, it was hardly the highlight of the retreat. After putting hygiene kits together as a group, we played some more get to know you games that really had us laughing. All the games were a blast, but a huge thank you to the Nintendo Wii for coming out with Just Dance! Watching everybody rock out was awesome, but we did find out that two of our boy teammates are, by far, the best dancers in the group! I have a feeling they will have a lot of fun with the kids in Mexico that might show us some dances at the cultural exchange activities.

We also got to hear almost all the teammates name nearly everyone on the team! We all realize that now that we have those names in our minds, they will be there for a LONG time! In the morning, we got to put cards together for people who have been a help to our communities, and had fun putting our own little creative twists on things--even though we just had to laugh at ourselves if we couldn't tie a bow or if we "aged" something on the wrong side.

Something about laughing just brings a group together, and thank goodness for that! There were so many friendships made and strengthened that night, and above all, that made us the MOST excited for our trip! There's definitely something special about Team Mexico, and none of us can wait to bring it with us to the people of Chiapas.

Other meetings with Team Mexico have been fun, but the retreat was indeed the most exciting yet! We can't wait til our whole team can be together from all around Utah and even our Minnesota Teammates!

Go Team Mexico 2011!

Young Humanitarian Award applications available! $5,000 college scholarship! Deadline: March 23, 2011

Are you Utah's Young Humanitarian?

If you are a young person who strives to serve your com­munity, a $5000 college schol­arship might be the reward you never expected for your efforts.

Those who serve are gener­ally too humble to seek recog­nition,” says Youthlinc Execu­tive Director Judy Zone “but what receives attention in our society is what others will imi­tate.”

Promoting humanitarian service among youth is the rea­son behind this annual tribute, sponsored in its sixth year by George & Dolores Eccles Foundation, US Bank, and Deseret News. Zone encour­ages those who know altruistic young people to urge them to apply. “Ironically, all of our fi­nalists are students who were basically forced to apply by mentors who knew they de­served this Award.”

Three outstanding young hu­manitarians will receive $1000 Awards and Utah’s Young Hu­manitarian 2011 will receive a $5000 college scholarship. Ap­plications are open to all Utah resident secondary and undergraduate college students who are U.S. citizens or legal residents and are available at www.youthlinc.org Deadline is March 23, 2011.

Over the past six years, Utah Young Humanitarian ap­plicants have been involved in a variety of service activities, raised thousands of dollars for charities, helped thousands of people, and involved hundreds of their peers in service.

2010 finalists included: Brian Johnson of Southern Utah University has volunteered locally and in Uganda, Jerika Michel of Westminster College teaches English to refugees and grows food for local charities, Hanne Paine of West H.S. volunteers at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, U of U student Ryan Johnson volunteers at The Children’s Center.

“Our goal is to recognize excellence in service all over the State,” says Youthlinc Local Service Director Julia Wee. “There is no town in Utah without a young person who is an unsung hero.”

Last years winner, Kajsa Vlasic, loves to immerse herself in any culture or situation where there is a need. While attending West High, Kajsa volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters, ESL tutoring, Girls on the Run (acting as a mentor and coach to at risk teens), and the International Rescue Committee, mentoring refugee families in Salt Lake City. While juggling all these service activities, she was able to graduate with an International Baccalaureate diploma. While dedicating many hours each week to serving locally, she has also found time to serve internationally in Kenya and Costa Rica, with Youthlinc and Amigos respectively. Kajsa says, “I see myself as a humanitarian because I am happiest when I serve. The experience I have had serving others has helped me to be both more independent and more humble.”

“Though recognition is not the motivation for service,” says Pamela Atkinson, who has served on the Selection Committee and is one of Utah’s most active and honored hu­manitarians, “this Award pro­gram raises awareness and en­courages more young people to consider the value in helping others.”

The idea for this Award arose from the Youthlinc pro­gram, which requires Utah students to contribute up to 100 hours of local service, in order to receive a sponsorship which offsets the cost of an in­ternational service experience. “In the last eleven years, we’ve seen almost 1,000 young people pass through our program and become really turned on to ser­vice,” Zone says. “This Award is designed to recognize and celebrate the dedication of Utah’s young humanitarians.”

"Your Face is a Canvas"

     Fridays at the Real Life in Salt Lake Program are days for artistic expression. This Friday, about 35 of us gathered in the gym of the Columbus Center to paint each others' faces. Before we started, Ellie announced the activity. "Pretend that your face is a canvas," she told us. And with that, we donned garbage bag bibs, partnered up, and squirted paints on to paper plates. Then our fun began. While some volunteers' faces were turned into those of zombies, others were decorated with brightly colored designs and decorations. After the hullaballoo of painting one another was over, everyone crowded around to take pictures of their beautiful (or frightening) faces. One-on-one time with the kids is always special, and the volunteers get to know the kids on a more personal level.

     The Real Life program continues to bring smiles to the faces of refugee teens, and they found this past Friday to be particularly enjoyable. It's simple, but a few tubes of paint and a camera can make us all really happy. I'm really lucky to be able to spend so much time with these wonderful people, and seeing them have such a good time really makes me glad I'm a part of Youthlinc.

Team Thailand's January Overnight Retreat!

Last Friday (and Saturday) Pete Frost's home was teeming with hyper teenagers, and some hyper adults! The Thailand-bound camaraderie thronged into the warmth of his home, immediately migrating toward the kitchen to the Massaman curry made by Pete's Thai friend. We were lucky to have an authentic meal, and I can safely say most of us slurped it up eagerly. After eating, the team split off into smaller groups to play cards, video games, and some pretty extreme around-the-world ping pong. We mingled around--introducing ourselves and memorizing names-- as we entertained ourselves, and then were called together for a huge game of Famous-Person Catch Phrase. After the Michael-Jackson-Taylor-Swift-Jared-Fogle (haha) intensity died down, we watched a slide show of pictures from last year's trip to Thailand. Seeing pictures made the fact that we are all going to be in Thailand in about 6 months seem like reality! Right now, we're all focused on clocking in our hours and raising money for our cause, and it's easy to forget that we'll all actually be in Thailand for two weeks this summer! I'm so amazed by the amount of service that Youthlincers are responsible for in our area! When the slideshow was over, Vayla made an announcement to not just the cultural committee, but the entire team. As part of our cultural meshing at the school, we will be dancing the Cupid Shuffle for the kids in Thailand. We watched this video, which would also serve as a VERY loud alarm clock for us come morning. I wonder what the kids in Phang Nga will think of our silly moves :) We played a few more games, including McKay's favorite, Mafia. After a long evening of silly games and becoming familiar with our team, we were exhausted, and it wasn't long before we were dead asleep. We awoke pretty early, rolled up our sleeping bags, and ate a breakfast made by our team leaders and mentors :) Fairly soon afterwards, we headed to Kids on the Move, a child development and family resource center in Orem. There, we cleaned the playrooms. The brightly colored plastic balls in their ball-pit get pretty grimy, as you would imagine, and some of us wiped them down, one by one. It's important for these youngsters to have a clean place to play! Others of us put together informative binders for families of Kids on the Move and cut shapes from cardstock for art projects the center will be doing. After a fun-filled night and a morning of service, Team Thailand took a group picture with Kami's popular hot pink camera, said "Goodbye, until February!", and parted ways. Our retreat was successful-- the perfect combination of team-bonding and service!

Meet Jaclyn Bawden from the Kenya Team.

 

Hey Youthlincers, this is Meagan I am the blogger for the Kenya Team, I am here to introduce you to Jaclyn Bawden.  Jaclyn loves boating, especially at Lake Powell, she loves spending time with family and friends.  Jaclyn loves Reese's, Superman ice cream and loves Cafe Rio.  She want's to be a dental hygienist and wants to go to Africa because she knows it will be an amazing experience and she wants to help people here.

 

Scott visited Jaclyn Bawden’s service site this week which is Discovery Gateway.  Jaclyn goes down once or twice a week to volunteer in the play areas.  Her responsibilities are to clean and organize all the play areas and to play and interact with the kids who are there playing.

 There are several fun areas that the kids can play in.  For example, there is a grocery store where the children can pretend they are shopping or pretend they are the employees of the store. 

There are uniforms for them to put on and tons of play food.  There was the cutest little girl named Lucy there who was “in charge”.  She was the take charge checker and she kept us laughing the whole time.  She  knew all about the store and being a checker.  There is also a house, farm, construction site, and a water play area.  Upstairs is a theater area with costumes the kids can put on as well as areas to learn about the weather, broadcasting and even a real medical helicopter the kids can play in.  We had a great time helping the kids with whatever they needed as well as cleaning up all the toys.

Miss Utah & Mondo Art Project add artistic expression to our Real Life refugee mentoring program.

This has been a great week for the Real Life Program! Monday we were able to got to know the kids involved in the program on a more one on one level. Students talked about where they were from, their families, school life, who their hero is and just got to feel comfortable with everyone! It was truly a great day to be a part of. It is such an inspiration to me to see our amazing Youthlinc students reach out and touch these refugees lives. The program has been running for over a month and we have seen such success! We have between 25-50 refugee teens participating in our program and a huge THANK YOU to the STELLAR Youthlinc students who have gone above and beyond to make this program a safe and fun place for the kids involved.

Through our partnership with Miss Utah we were able to add a day to the program that is devoted to art expression. So to celebrate that we wanted to have a cool collaborative project and we came up with "Life's Puzzle". Since we have so many people involved in this program we thought this would be a great way for everyone to be represented. This program is just like a puzzle when all the pieces come together you have a masterpiece. All the contestants in the Miss Utah and Miss Teen Contest donated over $2,000 dollars worth of art supplies that were used in this project and throughout the program, we are so GRATEFUL!

Here are some awesome photos from the week, hope you enjoy.

Here is the whole group of students and volunteers with the finished product! It looks AMAZING!

The crown holders had a wonderful time getting to know the students!

It is starting to come together....

Everyone hard at work designing their puzzle pieces.

Our amazing Judy Zone even came down and created her very own puzzle piece!

This week the girls taught the Youthlinc Students about Thai Jump roping, a very challenging sport! Everyone loved it.

Explaining the art project and talking about what we all have in common and how we are also very unique.

We were able to label all the countries represented by the participants in the program.

One on one time getting to know the students was so much fun!

Hope you enjoy learning about Real Life! We will keep you posted on what else we are up to.