Importance Of Community Service And Leadership At Youthlinc

Much of my community service and leadership experience has been cultivated by an organization called Youthlinc. Youthlinc is a Utah based international humanitarian organization whose mission is to create lifetime humanitarians in our communities and internationally. I have traveled with this organization to Guatemala and Thailand. My first experience was as a student and then as an assistant team leader. I have had the opportunity to volunteer over 180 hours of local community service and four weeks of international service. Youthlinc has helped me developed my public speaking, leadership, administrative, organizational, fundraising, and problem solving skills.
I applied to the program at the beginning of my junior year of high school. I …show more content…
I chose this site, because I was a patient there just the year before and the doctors and staff there saved my life when I was diagnosed with a rare auto immune disease that is chronic. I also loved the staff and wanted to give back to the people who helped me and made my stay as comfortable as possible. I wanted to serve in pediatrics; unfortunately, because I was not 18 my volunteer choices were very limited. I ended up volunteering in the gift shop. I helped stock shelves, price goods, change the displays, and help customers with questions. I didn’t get to work with patients as much as I wanted to, but it was still very rewarding. The Gift shop not only generates funds for the hospital, but it is a nice place for loved ones to escape for a small moment. I learned from both of these sites that local service is needed everywhere in our communities and that anyone can find a place to do service that speaks to them. My second year of service was given to Youthlinc itself where I volunteered in their office 3 hours a week helping with whatever needed to be done. Service there was not only for my team going to Thailand, but whatever else the organization …show more content…
This helped me practice my public speaking, planning skills, as well as coordinating with a group and planning assignments. I was also in charge of following through with all of the students. My second year I was an assistant team leader. There were two people responsible for most aspects of our trip to Thailand and I was second in command. I gave presentations to recruit students, conducted monthly team meetings, spoke and conducted presentations at Youthlinc conferences. I also monitored and tracked all of the students’ local service hours. I talked with parents and students when concerns arose about service requirements and paperwork, I participated in fundraising events, helped plan the Youthlinc annual benefit, planned and carried out a team retreat, and team service projects. I took care of all administrative paperwork for our teams travel. I was responsible to help the team leader resolve conflicts and solve problems that arouse during the trip and service