written by Tiffany Lazo – Cedré ’12
Youth Lead the Change (YLC) is a global leadership conference that trains motivated high school students with tangible leadership skills through an innovative, hands-on curriculum developed by Harvard students. During and after YLC, students apply leadership concepts to create and implement their own social change projects. Founded in 2008, YLC has since expanded to three domestic locations (Vail, Colorado; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts) and three international locations (Myanmar; Bhutan; Japan). YLC has now partnered with The Baldwin School of Puerto Rico to bring its conference to 53 high school students from 12 public and private schools from all over Puerto Rico. Collaboration with the Baldwin School of Puerto Rico and companies such as JetBlue, Bella Group, Macaroni Grill, Chili’s, On The Border, Garriga Paper, and Domino’s Pizza helped make this program possible.
The Youth Lead the Change program, held from June 2 – 6, was a five-day leadership camp taught by Harvard College students, including Conference Director and Baldwin alumna Tiffany Lazo-Cedré ‘12, and four others from different states in the U.S. The camp focused on teaching key leadership principles to inspire youth using an integrated, interactive case study approach with innovative solutions to social issues.
The students worked both individually and in teams to develop and generate creative solutions and programs that they could implement to address social and economic issues in Puerto Rico. Each day had a unique focus: Day one involved better understanding of self and leadership; day two concentrated on identifying and better understanding the scope of community problems; day three instigated problem-solving skills and inspired students’ creativity; day four focused on public speaking, presenting, and project implementation; and in day five, students pitched their projects to the rest of the conference members.
The students also enjoyed presentations from some of the top business leaders in Puerto Rico, such as: Mr. Jaime Fortuño, Mr. Gabriel Hernández, Mr. Carlos López-Lay, Mr. Alejandro Silva Díaz whom provided students with different perspectives and information on how to become better leaders and shared their vision for improving Puerto Rico’s economy and quality of life.
The five-day program culminated with student presentations of their team projects and their vision to a panel of business executives including Mr. Carlos “Pepe” Rodríguez, Ms. Wesley Cullen, and Ms. Carmen Cedré. The presentations included their final ideas on implementing the programs to achieve social and economic change. In turn, the panel provided the students with feedback and input on how to approach the implementation of their plans. As part of the program, the Harvard Leadership Institute will provide continued mentorship, and in some cases grants, to support the programs to carry out these projects of social change.