2013 Young Humanitarian Award applications are available!

Announcing the 2013 Youthlinc Utah Young Humanitarian Scholarship!  

Youthlinc is excited to begin the search for the exceptional young person who will be called the 2013 Utah Young Humanitarian.  Youthlinc has organized this annual state-wide search since 2005.  The top applicants are chosen by a panel of community leaders in education, service, business, religion and politics.  Utah’s Young Humanitarian receives a $5,000 college scholarship, announced at our Annual Benefit, Saturday, May 11, 2013 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. There are three $1,000 runner-up awards. 

We are grateful to the George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation for sponsoring this Award.

You can find the application and guidelines for the scholarship on the Youthlinc website www.youthlinc.org and click on Apply. Or you can follow this link - Apply now! (Participation in a Youthlinc program is NOT a requirement to apply.  Everyone is encouraged to apply!)

Will you be the 2013 Utah Young Humanitarian? Take a look at last year's winners to see how they served their communities. 

Lisa Moynihan - 2012 Utah Young Humanitarian Winner

Lisa, a University of Utah student working on a BA in History and an Honors Certificate, was awarded the $5,000 scholarship for being chosen as Utah's Young Humanitarian in 2012.  Lisa was the Intern for Youthlinc’s Real Life in Salt Lake City program which is a mentoring program for refugees teens.  She was also a member of the Youthlinc 2012 Peru Team traveling to Yanamono, Peru.  Lisa has been devoted to service from a young age, planning and helping with multiple school service projects in high school including organizing a school wide food drive for the Utah Food Bank in 2008. She has been a College Buddy for the Best Buddies Program which fosters friendships between students and young adults with intellectual disabilities. She also participated as a mentor in the International Rescue Committee's Youth program for two years. In 2010 she was a member of the Youthlinc Kenya team. In that year she logged over 100 local service hours before her trip to Kiamuri, Kenya.

McKenzie Weeks - finalist

 McKenzie organized a yearlong project called “Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed Mission” where the group found ordinary ways to make extraordinary differences in the lives of others.  She recognizes that often times some of the most meaningful service opportunities come as people are just going about their daily lives.  Serving is a big part of her life and has taught her how to sincerely care about the circumstances of others.  She has learned that she can always make a difference in the life of a friend, family member, leader, teacher, acquaintance, and even a stranger. 

James Baird - finalist

In 2005 James co-founded Youth Making A Difference (YMAD) and helped take 20 high school students to Northern India to work with four different orphanages. James served as a full time missionary for the LDS Church in Richmond Virginia from 2007-2009. In August 2009 he moved to Kulu India for four months and opened The Home for Peace, YMAD’s first orphanage. While there, he moved seven children into the facility, enrolled them in school, taught English, and helped build a sustainable curriculum for the orphanage. James is still very involved with YMAD and serves as an active member of the board of directors and as Country Director for summer college expeditions. 

Whitney Smith - finalist

Whitney has always enjoyed serving others and has found numerous ways to include it in her life. She raised funds to serve in El Salvador where she promoted healthy living, nutrition, and dance therapy lessons for troubled youth and orphans.  This led her to continue her service for the next few years in the Fijian Islands, Russia and Uganda. In her endeavor to fight poverty, she has found opportunities to serve locally. Last year she worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer promoting healthy living to low-income families and currently mentors African women refugees with the Salt Lake City Chapter of the International Refugee Committee. With her desire to continue living altruistically, she has since returned to school for a second bachelors degree to study nursing at the University of Utah. With a background in health, she plans to continue advocating for the less fortunate while finding opportunities to improve health education.

Get to Know the Committees of Team Vietnam

CULTURAL COMMITTEE

 

 

The cultural committee is responsible for helping break down cultural barriers while we are in Vietnam.  We wish them luck in overcoming the language barrier!  They will be in charge of games, opening and closing ceremonies, the music program, and conducting oral histories with the families in country.  In preparation, they will be researching and teaching our team about the local history and customs of Vietnam and what is and is not culturally acceptable, as well as gathering game/sports equipment to donate to the village. 

 

 

VOCATIONAL COMMITTEE

 

 

The vocational committee is in charge of teaching the women/older students in Vietnam to make soap.  Through this, they will be helping create successful small enterprises.  In order to do this, they will (hopefully!) learn how to make soap themselves, and will need to fundraise to cover the starting expenses.

 

MICROENTERPRISE COMMITTEE 

 

The microenterprise committee is in charge of helping the people of Vietnam create a small businesses.  The people of Song Cau have chosen to create a Fish Sauce Project.  In country, the committee will teach lessons on microenterprise and create a community governing board.  In preparation, they will raise funds for microcredit loans to distribute in the area.

 

 

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

 

 

While in Song Cau, the education committee with be responsible for teaching the kids basic English Lessons, carrying-out the Mondo Art Project (a global art exchange which Real Life is helping with), and working together with the local village kids to produce a mural.  In preparation, they will be responsible for collecting school supplies to create school kits for the kids.

 

 

HEALTH COMMITTEE

 

 

The health committee has a big job in country.  They will be teaching maturation (if Britnie is to be believed, this is supposedly fun in other countries...), training medical assistants, teaching group/home/classroom health lessons (hygiene, first aid, etc), and conducting a community needs assessment.  Beforehand, they will be fundraising health supplies to stock the clinic.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE

 

The construction committee is headed by a few lucky individuals who are part of multiple committees, but every member of our team is part of it.  Together, we will help build homes for villagers who currently live in mud and thatched roof homes as well as help repair the local school.

 

days until takeoff: 164 and counting!!

Cambodia's January Retreat

The Cambodian team met on January 11 for their retreat at Kelly's house. Even though the roads were bad and snow was falling, most of the team was able to make it. Kelly was a great host, and we started off the retreat with some food and mingling.
We got to learn about some of our team's local service sites. Sarah W. is working at a school and doing an after school program. Brooke is also working at a school as well as an after school program, and Nate is visiting the elderly in their homes and visit with them.
As we broke into committees, we were able to get a ton accomplished. The medical team discussed possible lesson plan topic like food safety and hygiene. They also brainstormed possible projects like sanitary pads. The cultural committee was planning on participating in the Mondo Art Party on January 14. They also discussed the opening ceremonies and what dances we might do, (i.e Gangnam Style?). The education committee talked about how to help the team make the best lesson plans, and are going to make a list to sign  up for different topics that we can teach.  Micro-enterprise committee talked about having hanging gardens as a possible project. They also planned a lot of research in preparation for the February meeting.  The vocational committee talked about building a playground at the school as a possible project using tires swings or a rock wall.
Our service project got postponed to another day because of the storm. We were going to to the homeless shelter to serve breakfast. We did get to create file folder games that we will be taking with us to Cambodia. During our meeting we discussed possible fund raising ideas for all of our projects. Some of our projects may include: Playground, chicken farm, catfish pond, and bio sand filters in the homes. The chicken farm and the catfish pond would be cared for by the school and all profits would go back to the school as well.
Team Cambodia got a lot done at this meeting, and we are all super excited to do our local service hours, fundraising and read the two books Kelly gave us for home work, " First they Killed my Father" and "When Broken Glass Floats". These two books are about the Killing Fields  the Khmer Rouge, the mass genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's These books will teach us why the people of Cambodia need our help.

Meet the Vietnam Gang

We kicked off our journey by getting to know each other at the January meeting with a game of two truths and a lie.  This game taught us that we have more broken bones than actual people in the group, to beware because when angry, others have been known to cut off people's fingers, and to leave sock monkeys off of our packing lists.  After discussing a few matters of business, we were assigned to our committees, where we played a no-talking-no-touching-cup-stacking game. It was challenging, but also quite comical!

Each committee broke off to decide what they need to do before take off.  For example, the education committee made plans to go to Real Life in Salt Lake's Mondo Art project activity on Monday, which was a big hit.  Those who went got to try foods from all over the world, see pictures drawn by kids in Napal, and make our own art which will be sent to all the countries Youthlinc is visiting this year. 

If any of you are interested, there is a fundraiser dinner at Cafe Trang on February 20th from 6-8 pm.  It will be a celebratory evening with dinner, dragon dancing, and a brief explanation of our planned service in country.  The cost is $30 per person, but as always, whatever you are willing to donate is much appreciated.  The money raised this night will go to fund in country projects such as microloans and school supplies for the kids.  The address is 307 West 200 South, Salt Lake City.  RSVP by February 15th to office@youthlinc.org or call 801-467-4417.

The meeting ended with a couple of last words from group leader Britnie.  She explained to us that the no-talking-no-touching-cup-stacking game we played at the beginning will be similar to our experiences in Vietnam. It is going to be challenging and frustrating because of the language barrier, but as we learned in the game, many hands makes light work, and as a team, we will have the most amazing experience and learn to love each other and the people of Song Cau.

Just a reminder for the team, you should be half-way done with your service hours by the February meeting.  We cannot wait to see you at the retreat! And don't forget your food assignment.

Until next time,

Alyssa and Carly

Team Peru Brings in the Year with a Retreat to Remember

As team Peru set off on the New Year, we gathered together on January 4th at the Youthlinc office to head  for our retreat in the beautiful mountains. One of our team members Rin and her family were kind enough to host us at their cabin for the weekend and we couldn't be more grateful for the beautiful snowy lodgings we were provided with, bunk beds and all. We arrived at about 7 at night, and in about 7 degree weather, which was a little chilly on the snowmobile ride up, but we all safely arrived ready to have a great time together and get a lot done.

Our first order of business was to warm up closely followed by our monthly team meeting.Within our meeting we discussed our ideas to fund raise for supplies to take with us to Peru, heard about some of the main service in our group, as well as breaking out into our committees. Our committees this year are truly amazing and hope accomplish a lot. The Medical Committee is working on figuring out what kinds of things they would like to accomplish before they leave and planning for the medical aspect of the Peru trip. Our Vocational Committee worked together to plan for gathering fabric and supplies for the hand crank sewing machines we will be bringing down with us, and worked on a project making reusable feminine pads.

After being so productive in our break out sessions, it was time for the team to kick back have some fun and do some bonding, and what brings more bonding than a ping pong tournament?  Our doubles ping pong champions were Michelle Moynihan and Stephen Buma, but our MVP of the night was defiantly our wonderful Mark Burningham who showed amazing paddle control and a great sense of coordination. The activities ran long into the night and by the time everyone got to bed it was nearly 2 in the morning.
Our night was filled with a lot of fun, as well as the chance to really get to know our team and prepare for the adventure to come.
Despite our late night we were up bright and early the next morning. We had an amazing breakfast of bagels and muffins along with other delicious snacks left over from the night before.

We then got down to our service projects. Some made tied fleece blankets (with some of the wackiest patterns ever to be seen) and put together folders to take down to teach the kids about basic numbers and letter.
 Others worked on cutting out fabric for out reusable feminine pad that we will take down with us and teach the women there how to make. These projects were a big hit last year and the goal this year is to have more than enough for all of the women.

 Others still were doing all they could to stay awake after the amazing time we had the night before. All in all we got so much done in the morning. We made many blankets and folders and cut out lots of supplies for our projects.

Team Peru started the year off with a bang at our retreat and man did we get a lot done. Our team is looking forward to our Year Service and we are very excited that we get to spend it together in our Youtlinc Family

Happy New Year from Team Peru!

New Years and New Beginnings!

Despite hail, wind, snow, and sleet, members of the 2013 Thailand team surged ahead to accomplish the daunting task of preparing for our upcoming adventure in July. In order to wade past the first name basis and swim into "deeper" waters we started out with a little a game of question ball, the questions either varied from outlandish to simple and we had a blast learning that team leader Carson would like to name her fictitious yacht, "My Yacht". Team leader Bobby then gave us all a much needed reminder about finding a main service site,  if you haven't found one yet, please do!

After breaking up into our committees, members dug deep in order to learn more about Thailand and plan ahead for upcoming jobs and activities. Ken, the team mentor over the cultural committee introduced several Thai novelties to his group, the list included a bamboo instrument, several sarongs, and most importantly his own personal pair of Muay Thai shorts. Nothing speaks Thai more than a pair of kickboxing shorts! Members of the vocational group discussed the idea of hanging gardens that would protect crops from floods that regularly devastated the area. The education and medical committees both diligently debated over ideas to better serve the Moken community, and as the collaboration went on, one could feel the excitement levels in the building rise a few notches just by talking about it. All in all, it seems like everything is coming together quite nicely.

Team mentor Ken said, "We need to stop thinking in a state of mind of wanting to be at Thailand and serving, but in a state of mind where we realize we ARE going to Thailand." I agree, and can't think of a better way to say it other than that. We ARE going to Thailand!

Until we write again about our team retreat on February 8-9,
Thailand team bloggers Emily Kwok and Itzak Leifler are signing out.

2013 Service Year off to a record breaking start

The Record Breaking 2013 Youthlinc Family!

Applications, sponsorship season, and General Orientation are behind us. Our six Service Year teams (Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Thailand, and our new site, Vietnam) and our Friends & Family Team to Vietnam are meeting in December to begin the local service, international service planning, and excitement of Youthlinc's fourteenth year of operation.

It is a year of breaking records: a record 170 students are enrolled on our Service Year teams, with 46 mentors (adult professionals) guiding them. Since no student can be accepted without a sponsor, we have been able to raise $110,000 in new sponsorship funds in October, and we will utilize $50,000 in sponsorship funds raised at our Benefits - for a record total of $160,000 in sponsorship investment in the service ethic of our student participants.

These students will also break the record with a minimum of 15,000 hours of required local service contributed this school year. Students earn their sponsorships through their local service. Each Youthlinc student will write a thank you note to their sponsor in December, the beginning of what we hope will be a great relationship through communication about our intense - and intensely rewarding - Service Year.

Our Friends & Family team to Vietnam this year is also our largest ever: 40.  More than half of the team members are alums, so this team is truly meeting its original purpose: to allow an additional international service leadership experience for our alumni and to allow students and mentors who cannot participate in our Service Year (for whatever reason) to have a quality international service experience. Friends & Family teams plan all the service activities that our Service Year teams do, but no local service is required. No student sponsorships are available for participation in this team.

At December team meetings, participants get to know each other better, learn more about the international site, and the tasks ahead in each of our international service committees: education, community health, microenterprise, vocational training, cultural exchange. If they haven't already, they will be selecting the committee on which they will have a leadership role.

Another very important part of our December meetings for students in our Service Year: selecting their main local service site where they will contribute at least half their required hours, participating in hands-on service with a genuinely needy population. This year, the service of each student on every Service Year team will be celebrated on our new Local Service Blog. Every team meeting will include a focus on and reflection upon the local service participants are doing.

In January, teams have a social and a service project. In February, committees start delegating, researching, and planning their international service. March is our Traveling Healthy Clinic at the University of Utah Travel Clinic - an opportunity for all participants to learn about recommended vaccinations and other issues of staying healthy in an underdeveloped country. April and May team meetings provide additional opportunities for committees to put the final touches on their international service planning, practice their lessons, and receive feedback from their team members. During these months, teams often plan fundraisers for project funds in-country.

Before they know it, the June or July packing meeting is happening. Team members bring all donated items, from shoes to medical, hygiene, dental, and school supplies and pack them in Youthlinc duffels to bring with them on their international service trips to impoverished villages.  

The Service Year goes quickly, mostly because people are busy doing so much good locally and internationally. Every Service Year provides its own unique adventures, but many things are always the same: the culture of service, the incredible local and international service accomplishments, and the transformation of  a group of strangers who grow to become lifelong friends by becoming lifetime humanitarians together.

Youthlinc Peru 2013 Service Year team