Los Alamitos, USA – Every student should attend leadership training – Apr 2016

Dear Better Lives,

I’d like to share why I am so grateful for The Youth Center’s Leadership Academy that I attended last summer.

I am 17 years old, live in Cypress and am in my senior year at Cypress High School. I did not realize how much I did not know about independent living until I attended the Academy. The Career Skills, Home Economics, and Automotive Maintenance sessions were especially helpful to me as I had very little exposure to these topics before. I also had very little knowledge of financial matters so the Financial Skills information was great.

After we graduated from the course, I reflected upon how the sessions helped me to stay open-minded regarding the changes I would encounter when transitioning from high school to college – so different from what I’ve been used to so far in life! The Academy gave me a great start on what I will have to learn in the future to become a successful and stable adult.

Currently, I am waiting for replies to college applications I submitted. As my dad lost his job a few months ago I unexpectedly found that I also had to complete scholarship applications. My career dream is to become a computer engineer or a computer programmer. I hope to start an internship while I am in college and land the job right afterwards. Towards this end, I am very grateful for learning resume writing skills, how to market myself on employment websites, how to present myself during an interview and other life skills. All of the tools learned will be invaluable to my successful management of these next big steps in my life.

I feel that every high school student should attend The Youth Center’s Leadership Academy and am thankful that it is available. The sessions are invaluable and really help to prepare teens for their future. I would also like to thank everyone at Better Lives for helping to make this course possible.

Sincerely,

Jessica Chang