On Wednesday, May 12th YouthWorks held a graduation reception and ceremony for our mentors, interns and their families. The event was uplifting and inspiring, with many great speakers and awards given. Our emcees for the evening were Youth Leadership Team members Jennifer Nguyen and Che’Graftanay Mims. Keynote speakers Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Sophie Maxwell both gave encouraging words to our graduating interns. They emphasized the important roles interns play in the workings of city government, as well as the value of mentors both in our program and in the greater community.
We also had three youth speakers during the ceremony. Youth Leadership Team (YLT) member Thurston Zhu spoke about the accomplishments of the YLT this year. YouthWorks alumnae Monica Guerra and Leah LaCroix talked about how being in YouthWorks impacted their ability to successfully obtain and retain future jobs, as well as their desire to become more engaged in their communities.
We are honored to work with many city departments who volunteer their time and funds to support our program. At graduation we presented 2009-2010 Program Sustainer Awards to the four departments who have made the largest contributions to our program – the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Public Health, the Public Library, and the Recreation and Park Department. We deeply appreciate their commitment to YouthWorks.
We were thrilled to recognize all of our graduating interns and their hard work and accomplishments this year. We presented them with certificates to acknowledge their successful completion of our program and wish them well in their future endeavors.
We would like to thank all of our mentors, interns, family and friends who attended graduation and support our program. Without all of you, our program could not exist! We have had an exciting year, and look forward to the next incoming class of YouthWorks interns this summer!
Written by Employment Coordinator Julia Scheinbeim