On a mission to empower and impart wisdom to the next generation, instructors from The Youth Center’s Leadership Academy brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to their student workshops.
The five outstanding instructors who taught real-world adult life skills were Michelle Tachick, program specialist for Youth Employment Service (Y.E.S.) in Costa Mesa, and Amy Payne, executive director of Summer Harvest, Food for Kids with families of the Los Alamitos, Cypress and Fountain Valley school districts. Other instructors included Seth Eaker of Black Marble Consulting, LLC, of Seal Beach and Macau, China who taught on being a good citizen and life choices, Jason Fish, a specialist in organizational leadership at Cypress High School who taught on leadership lessons, and Jeffrey Blanc of New York Life who instructed on independent living skills.
Tachick, who has been with Y.E.S. for the last three years and has had her own business for many years taught on pre-employment job readiness skills, while Payne brought her extensive knowledge of nutrition and cooking skills to the 24 Leadership Academy students. Payne even helped them to prepare their very meal served to parents and politicians at their graduation ceremony.
“I believe all young adults should have every opportunity available to better themselves, to learn and grow,” said Tachick. “It’s pretty awesome having someone that can assist you when looking for jobs and be another source of support!” She specifically taught the students how to prepare their ‘elevator pitch,’ interviewing preparation, resumes, how to use online resources like LinkedIn, and organized ‘mock interviews’ with Y.E.S. Human Resource volunteers.
“Each student had the opportunity to practice all they learned with a one-on-one mock interview received feedback from their professional interviewer,” Tachick said. “They did fantastic! Our goal was to prepare them with the tools they need to feel confident in their job search, applications, follow-up, interviewing skills so they can be successful in landing a job when needed.”
Tachick added, “The students at Leadership Academy were outstanding! Very engaged, polite, enthusiastic, and had asked a lot of questions. Our volunteers who came out to help with the mock interviews all said how much they enjoyed being there and how the students were well prepared and fun to speak with.”
Though she had nothing like the Leadership Academy growing up, Tachick wishes she had known about it for her own children, saying it is a “tremendous program.” She added that once the academy students complete the Y.E.S. program they have services available to them until they turn 25 years old. Services include help with interviewing, job fairs, networking events, job board, personal resume consultation with a professional resume builder, and all the support they need.
Preparing and empowering youth by bringing them up with healthy eating habits facilitated thru simple meal preparation, Payne likewise has a passion she wanted to share with the Leadership Academy students. She and her 100 percent volunteer run non-profit, Summer Harvest, help to provide healthy meals to families with children on the free and reduced lunch program, during breaks from school, through the distribution of food and education.
“I feel that it is important life skill for young adults to be able to meal plan and cook healthy meals,” she said. “I hope they learned the basics of how to prepare quick, healthly meals on a limited budget with minimal equipment.”
As a mother of two “amazing daughters” with husband, Sean Payne, residing out of Seal Beach, she strongly believes in investing in the next generation in order to keep communities strong. “If everyone waited for someone else to do something nothing would get done,” she added. “I hope more young people see the value in eating healthy and maintaining a balanced life.”
Payne said that although she had some life skills such as basic finance and cooking in junior high and high school while growing up in La Palma, that there was never a program like the Leadership Academy that brought it all together. It wasn’t until she attended college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo majoring in Engineering and minoring in Dance, and marrying after graduation that she mastered adult life skills for herself.
Like Tachick, she was equally impressed with the young academy students, most of which were still in high school. “Overall they were willing and excited to learn these life skills,” she said. Both instructors said they’d return to teach next year’s Leadership Academy.
Instructors Seth Eaker and Jason Fish were also impressed with the academy students saying they also would return to teach as well. Although Eaker found he had to actively engage the students, he said once they were “on a roll” that they understood “the power of being their most authentic self.” Fish said it was his hope that the students were able to grasp the importance of making an impact on someone’s life, whether in a big or small way.
“The only way for young people to learn to be leaders is if they have others in life to model themselves after,” Fish said. Having attended a similar leadership academy in high school, he added it was one of the best opportunities he ever experienced.
For instructor Jeffrey Blanc it was personal as to why he taught the academy students. At the age of 15, his father died and he had to learn quickly that if he didn’t grow up things would go down instead of up. Living independently since the age of 18, Blanc believes generations are always dependent upon each other.
“I felt that my experiences could impart some knowledge,” he said. “I wanted to impart that education is everywhere, not just in school. Life is our classroom.”
“Making a difference requires action, Blanc said. “Words are just words. I did what they [the students] are about to embark on.”
For more information about The Youth Center Leadership Academy, please visit online at www.theyouthcenter.org. To be wait listed for next year’s academy, please visit info@theyouthcenter.org.