The Future is bright!
For this month’s Youth Spotlight, I met with the Youth Ambassadors at My Future Pathways (MFP) and left with optimism, enthusiasm, and hope for future generations of change-makers. My Future Pathways’ mission is to provide a helping hand to empower and enhance the lives of young Latino community members and their families. They inspire youth to ignite their grit and passion to achieve the ultimate goals of graduation, employability, and leadership for a fulfilling and productive life. The youth I met with, including, Dianelys Medina, Victor Castro, Javier Hernandez, Leslie Lopez, Jonathan Sandoval, and Antwon Lozano are true leaders within our community and had many words of wisdom to share with their peers, adults, and younger generations.
The MFP Ambassador program has been running for 2 years and the current ambassadors have been with the program for 5 months, since the beginning of the school year. All hope to be a part of the program through HS graduation. Each has a unique dream for their future, from real estate development to radiology, studying design, to becoming an architect, a perfusionist, and an underwater welder. Throughout our conversation together, the themes of community involvement, independent thinking, connection, mentorship, and kindness were prevalently discussed. Below are direct quotes from the youth ambassadors, as their words speak volumes.
Q: What does it mean to be an ambassador?
A: “It’s a way to talk about our community, and stuff we need to talk about that people don’t speak of as much because of situations that have happened.”
“A good way to get the youth and younger kids involved in our community is to grab their attention and focus on more positive things.”
“A way to expand the knowledge of MFP as an organization and let people know we are here for them and for their service.”
“Recently with a lot of our videos, we help kids that are going through something, and help them cope with difficult times.”
Q: How does the ambassador program help youth cope through difficult times?
A: “Mentoring, boxing, team building activities, connecting people, and making new friendships.”
“We have a podcast, we talk about a lot of interesting topics, like violence in the community.”
“We do fun activities before mentoring and at the end have “group talks” and supervisors would ask meaningful questions about our lives. You get to talk as a group with people who may have experienced the same thing as you or could help you out with what you are going through.”
Q: What are you most proud of as an ambassador:
A: “Getting involved in the program and giving back to our community.”
“Made me more involved in the community and now I feel way more in touch with everything within the Valley.”
Q: What do you love most about being involved with MFP as an Ambassador?
A: “Meeting new people”
“Make new friends”
“Relationships I’ve gotten to build”
“The adults who help us, they are more like friends, and someone who is there to guide me and lead me.”
“The Ambassador program provides support to students with help applying for scholarships for college, the college application process, and homework help on Tuesday mornings at EVHS.”
Q: What is your advice for your peers?
A: “Get involved”
“Don’t let your friends guide you, you should guide yourself. If you want to come to mentoring on Thursday, then come.”
“Stay focused on your goals.”
“Talk about things that don’t get talked about with adults, like youth violence. It's important that it comes from us, the youth, and not from an adult.”
“Important for kids to hear from us, it’s more relatable and more effective to help prevent violence or other negative situations.”
“It takes a lot more courage to talk it through rather than resort to violence.”
Q: What is your one wish you have for the future of youth?
A: “Kindness- being kind gets you a long way, whether it’s in schools, work, or within your community. When your kind, people are kind to you back.”
“Be patient with what you want to do, in school, and with yourself.”
“Youth need a reality check- kids need to realize what is going on in our community, you need to grow up and be mature with yourself, especially high schoolers. We’re growing up, we need to be more adult like and more responsible and not fight over words that we say to each other.”
“People should care for themselves more, more than they do, care for your life, your path.”
“Don’t let your friends guide you into doing the wrong things.”
“It's okay to be independent and ok to be co-dependent. It’s ok to need to reach out to people and ok to want to be alone sometimes.”
“Be comfortable with being uncomfortable, it’s ok to be corny if you want to involve yourself in something, be the corny kid, you’ll be the one getting yourself further, you’ll be the one opening up more doors for yourself while being yourself, while others are trying to be someone they are not.”
The Ambassador program at MFP is building youth role models who play a critical role in the health and wellness of our community. They have created a space for positive youth development, peer support, and mentorship for all youth in our Valley. To learn more about MFP, please visit their website, here.
-Stevi Bratschie, Director of Community Education
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