Now in its fifth year, the award-winning Suwanee Youth Leaders (SYL) program is accepting applications for its 2018 class. A nine-month City of Suwanee leadership program for high school sophomores and juniors, SYL is open to students who live in the North Gwinnett, Peachtree Ridge, and Collins Hill clusters, as well as home school and private school students who reside in the City of Suwanee. The program centers on civic involvement, leadership skills, and volunteer opportunities.
“The partnership with the City of Suwanee and Suwanee Youth Leaders provides an outstanding opportunity for our student leaders to learn about civic engagement. The program that Suwanee has created teaches critical soft skills, teamwork protocols, and ultimately event production that kids do not get to learn in traditional classroom settings. Not only do they get to work with and learn from amazing adults, but they also network with students from other clusters to create a collaborative relationship that makes all of our schools better,” said Kirsten Baker, Assistant Principal, Leadership Development, North Gwinnett High School.
Past participant Zarah Punjwani, a junior at Peachtree Ridge High School, said, “What did I get from the program? Honestly: my voice. When I applied to SYL, I was really shy and timid; I had never done anything like this before. I was afraid to even apply for fear of rejection. Even after being accepted into the program, I was terrified to come to the first meeting. Over time my confidence grew because of this program and the people in it. I was encouraged to do things I would have never done by myself, pushing past my limits and discovering this whole new level of myself that I didn’t know of before. My biggest, proudest moment was spontaneously becoming the emcee of the Suwannee Fest Parade. Taking the microphone with no fear made me realize how much I had grown over the past few months.”
The 2018 SYL program will kick off with a mandatory two-day retreat in early March. Students will then meet one Saturday each month March through October and also will be expected to volunteer at several community events, which may include the August Concert, two Food Truck Friday events, Suwanee Fest, and Arts in the Park.
Applications are at suwanee.com and are due at City Hall by December 1. For more information about SYL, contact Adam Edge at aedge@suwanee.com or Denise Brinson at denise@suwanee.com.
