Zach Hinton: Ready for Success

We develop the next generation of leaders at the Y!  Just read this article by Stacy Chandler that ran in the May 31 edition of the News & Observer's Thumbs Up section. The Clarence E. Lightner YMCA Achievers Program is a leadership development program for area middle and high school teens.


When Zachary Hinton graduated from Southeast Raleigh High School last weekend, he had a little extra preparation for college and life beyond thanks to the Y Achievers program.

For four years in the local Clarence E. Lightner YMCA Achievers Program, Zach has gotten to know mentors in the community, gone on college tours and polished his interview skills both for college and a future career.

"It's a program that tries to help a minority kid to make it in the global arena," he explained.

Zach Hinton

Along the way, he also learned a thing or two about leadership while serving as the chapter's president.

And he's learned that working hard and serving the community has its rewards. Zach was selected for a nationalYMCA Five-Star Ambassador Award, which comes with a $10,000 scholarship.

The award's application process required Zach to take courses on financial literacy, something he thought was emphasized by award sponsor U.S. Bank "so you won't get caught up in the scams," he said. He learned how credit works, tips for finding housing after college and more.

"I figure it's very important for anyone my age to learn about where your money should go," he said.

It's also important, he said, to learn about where a young person can go if he or she works hard and stays on the right path.

The Y Achievers mentoring program gave him and other participants that chance by partnering with black and Latino role models from the community.

"I thought that was really cool, to see someone that looks like me and they were doing well in society," Zach said.

Zach plans to attend Hampton University in Virginia this fall, and he credits Y Achievers for helping to get him there.

"Not only because of the money they are offering me," he said, "but also because of all the skills that I've learned from Y Achievers, from the college essays to the interviews to the college tours. ... Just everything that I've learned, I think it's definitely going to help me figure out my future."

In 2010, the YMCA of Triangle Y Achievers Program and the Clarence E. Lightner Youth Leadership Foundation joined forces. The Lightner Foundation was founded to pay tribute to the life of Clarence E. Lightner, the first African-American mayor of Raleigh. In continuing his positive community efforts, the Clarence E. Lightner Leadership Endowment Fund was established to provide leadership development programs aimed at making a positive impact on youth throughout the Triangle region.

Spring Break Offers Lasting Lessons

This article by Stacy Chandler appeared in the May 17 edition of the News & Observer's Thumbs Up section.

While many of her classmates were looking forward to getting a tan on spring break, Kim Geiger was eager to get something else during her time off from school: perspective.

With about 40 fellow members of the Leaders Club from YMCAs across the Triangle, she traveled to Washington, D.C., for a volunteer mission to help that city's hungry and homeless.



Feeding Others

 
The volunteers packed meals and toiletries and served dinners, but their work went beyond handouts. They also engaged with the people they helped, sitting down for one-on-one conversations that helped pass the time but also told the stories of lives gone off-course.



YMCA Spring Break

 "Over my trip I learned that these people grew up maybe not just like I did, but similar, and one bad choice and they ended up like this," Kim, 16, said a couple weeks after returning to her home in Cary. "So I learned that these people were not any less of a human than I was, and I really appreciated that fact by the time I was heading home."

The Leaders Club students worked hard during their trip, but Kim said the hardest part of their mission was when the work was over. 

"The hardest part was walking away," she said. "We would be doing something that was really beneficial and really making a person happy, and then the activity was over and they would go back to being on the streets, not knowing when their next meal would be."

One night, she added, the volunteers cooked dinner for a group of homeless people.

"When we walked home that night, back to our hostel," she said, "we saw some of the people who had eaten dinner with us still with their nametags on, sleeping on benches."
 
Heartwrenching as that scene was for Kim, she knows she gained as much from the trip as the people she was able to help.

"I feel that if I'm helping another person and helping to benefit another one's life, I've done something with my life that's meaningful," she said.

The YMCA of the Triangle's Leaders Club provides middle and high school students with opportunities to receive leadership training that enhances personal growth while teaching the importance of social responsibility and service to others. Click here to learn more.

A Different Kind of Spring Break

Liz Simpers led the YMCA Spring Break Mission Trip that was featured in the May 17 News & Observer. Here's a brief interview with the Cary Family YMCA Teen Director.

Where did you go for Spring Break?
We took 40 high schoolers to Washington, D.C. to participate in work with the homeless through an organization called YSOP (Youth Services Opportunities Project). YSOP operates in D.C. and New York City coordinating a variety of programs that deal with hunger and homelessness.


Planning



Our group made and handed out sandwiches one night.We hosted a dinner for the homeless at a downtown church and served meals at the D.C. Soup Kitchen. We worked with a group called Elder Buddies that helps to clean up apartments for senior citizens in danger of being evicted due to unsanitary conditions. 

What did you do there?

One of the most impactful things we did was to go to local park one evening and hand out sandwiches, socks, and toothbrushes to the homeless community.

Hitting the Streets

We told the kids to engage with the community, to talk to them, get to know them, ask their names, and in general, visit with them. You could see kids all over the park sitting with a homeless man or woman, that appreciated the conversation just as much as the sandwiches. Our group of high school kids, from all over the Y branches in the Triangle , learned a lot about what we have in common with the homeless, and how to have compassion for every person we meet.

What is YMCA Leaders Club?
Leaders Club group is part of a national YMCA initiative. At our Y (YMCA of the Triangle), about 100 high school students from local high schools learn what it means to be a leader in the community. During the school year, students learn more about themselves, grow together in meetings, on trips and in service opportunities. Participants must maintain a 3.0 GPA and complete 100 volunteer hours during the year.

What did the teens (and you) learn during the trip?
In DC, we got to get outside of our own little bubble and see people for who they are, not what they make or what they drive, or where they live.

We were all impacted by the reality that homelessness is more an issue of loneliness than economy. When people don’t have family and friends that love them, they are truly alone, and have no resources to support them in a time of crisis. That hit home for a lot of us, and personally made me thankful that I am loved and supported, and would have someone to turn to if I was in a financial crisis.

YMCA Teen Leaders Having Fun


Why do you work at the Y?
I work at the Y because we have a chance to impact lives, truly. We have the venue and the resources to help high school kids discover their true identity, and that is life changing. Where else can I do something like that for a living and watch the community be transformed?


You also led the TOMS walk our YMCA sponsored in April. Why compels you to lead these efforts?
In the year and a half that I have been working at the Cary Y, I've seen amazing growth that I attribute to our volunteer advisors and our kids bringing their friends and families into their lives. A vision for change can be contagious. It is obvious to me, with the success of our TOMS event, that people know they need to do more and WANT to be a part of something bigger than themselves. To be a part of facilitating that is an amazing opportunity.