By Emily Williams
Vestavia Hills High School is home to Youth Leadership Vestavia Hills, a program that seeks to connect the nearly 2,000-student school through the assertiveness and accountability of its members.
YLVH began in 2004 through the efforts of Kym Prewitt and her Leadership Vestavia Hills peers. At that time, the Youth Leadership program was not officially a part of the high school.
“We knew that we could start a program that mirrored the adult program,” Prewitt said. “The very next year we had 100 kids sign up.”
This summer, Prewitt and Lindy Walker look forward to welcoming a record-breaking class of 230 students into the program.
“Almost half of the entire grade is going through this program,” Prewitt said. “That can really change the climate and culture of a school.”
Through a two-day retreat, Prewitt and Walker said, students are exposed to the program through team-building exercises and discussions with the goal of exposing commonalities and making connections with peers.
The larger the school, the harder it is to connect with your peers, Prewitt said, so the program is utilized to help students connect with each other and, in turn, reach out to other students.
“What we try to instill in them is that they are owners in their community, they are investors and they have the power to make it whatever they want it to be,” Prewitt said.
It is difficult to see results outside of the school setting, said Prewitt, but one way to measure the success of the program is through the increasing number of new members.
“We feel successful because every year our numbers increase,” Walker said. “You also have to look at the intangibles. It is a thing that you’re supposed to do. It is the thing that the freshmen begin to talk about.”
After the summer retreat, sophomore students must earn a certain number of points by participating throughout the year in programs such as Lunch and Learn sessions or volunteering in the community.
By their junior and senior years, students have the option to enroll in a leadership class and take part in an ambassador program called Rebel Connection. Through Rebel Connection, YLVH members are paired with new students based on common interests.
“If you have somebody who comes in and they speak Spanish and they do not speak English very well, we have some Youth Leadership students who are fluent in Spanish,” Prewitt said. “I think they find that whether it is another culture or another clique, that they have things in common with people that they would not have expected.”
By reaching out and connecting with other students, Prewitt and Walker said, the YLVH program encourages students to throw away the idea of stereotypes and search actively for ways to include others.
“It goes beyond just respecting each other. It’s reaching out and connecting with other people,” Prewitt said.
Both women said that their hope is that through this program students will have the confidence to reach out to fellow students.
Walker said, “This is about being assertive on someone else’s behalf and having the courage to do the right thing and being accountable for how you treat other people.”
Being accountable and assertive are two qualities that the YLVH program seeks to instill in its members.
“I think those are two big keys to leadership in general. We believe that all students have the potential to be leaders,” Prewitt said. “Assertiveness, for sure, does not always come naturally. It comes with confidence.”
As the program continues to grow and become a standard for the community, Prewitt and Walker are seeing results from potential members to graduating members, they said.
“Many (graduates) have reported back to us that they have used the skills they learned through youth leadership in answering college essay questions,” Prewitt said. “They’re always asked about it in interviews, because it’s unique. It’s not the typical leadership program.”
Prewitt and Walker agreed their favorite memory is a recurring one that they see at each of the summer retreats. Their favorite moment is when YLVH trainees have the confidence to show their innermost selves.
“You see the lightbulb go off,” Walker said. “You see these kids peel back the layers and become transparent and reveal who they really are on the inside. You see them not afraid to connect with other people.”
Prewitt and Walker both said that the retreat is extremely hard work, but the results make it worth the effort.
“And you hope that it goes beyond that day and they leave feeling empowered, as exhausting as it is,” Prewitt said.
For more information about the program, visit www.leadershipvestaviahills.com. ϖ
