Allen County United Youth Summit

       

I had the honor to be the opening speaker at the 4th Annual Allen County United Youth Summit this past Saturday, Feb 26th. The conference title was, “Make It Happen," and was all about encouraging youth to engage in the pressing issues their peers are facing and to engage in the community. 

I was asked to share my journey to becoming the Executive Director of NeighborLink, share stories of unique ways students can engage in the community, and to encourage them to engage in the topics of the summit. I had a blast. 

It was a great time to reflect on some of the experiences that marked me all the way back to high school and college that have encouraged my career path. Things like going to South Africa as a 19 year old for a large portion of the summer and doing tornado cleanup work in Van Wert, OH in 2002. Both caused me to be aware of the bigger world around me that can face extreme challenge at any time. 

I tried to challenge them become aware of the bigger issues facing them and their surrounding community and begin doing something positive about it. I emphasized how much power “choice" has in their lives and how they need to be intentional in order to incorporate choices to do the uncommon thing into their routines. The culture we live in calls us to be selfish, lazy and to do only things that benefit us. I hope they were encouraged by the fact that there is a better way and a more fulfilling way to live. 

I end up speaking quite a bit in smaller settings, but this was my first time speaking to a group of this size and in this type of speaking engagement. I’m usually presenting more technical stuff and/or topics around NeighborLink. So, I was a bit nervous because I wanted to make sure I did well and did it without the need of notes or cards. 

I’m more of a free-form type of presenter and if I focus too much on my notes, I’ll end up getting stuck on them and botch the whole thing. This free-form type of presenting also leads me to changing things up at the last minute, which I did. I ended up changing my entire intro by talking more about The Intentionals and some of the missions we’ve done with them that morning after arriving to speak. Fortunately I knew the stories really well and in the end they were more engaging than my intro anyway. The rest of the presentation went really well and I was happy with how I did. I’m sure it wasn’t as good as it could have been, but it felt good to get that one under my belt.

Thank you to the ACUYS for giving me this opportunity and I commend you on your efforts to provide a summit for the youth in our community. I was encouraged to see so many youth that I know can make a difference in our community.