Photo by Shelby Greenslade

In order to graduate from YLI in May, students are required to dress up and present their speeches. “I definitely learned a lot. You get so many perspectives that you aren’t traditionally exposed to at ADM,” said Greenslade.

Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) is an opportunity for sophomores, juniors, and seniors to grow in their leadership skills across the Des Moines area and earn four DMACC credits. They are involved in activities, service, and learning experiences. The group of around 40 students meets for one Friday a month, and occasionally on Monday evenings from October to May. Two seniors from ADM, Kelsey Greenslade and Allison Blum, were involved in this program.

The first step to being a part of this is filling out the online application, which included three essay questions. From that, you are notified if you are accepted into the program around a month later.

“We went to this orientation night where we did fun activities to get to know people,” said Greenslade. “We took headshots, got name tags, and got prepared for the process.”

During the summer, they got prepared by attending a retreat. They spent two days playing games and partaking in leadership activities that would prepare them for the year.

When they started attending the sessions regularly in October, they got used to the routine of meeting two days each month. The Friday sessions were called experience days, where the students would go somewhere off-site and learn about different things. The Monday evening sessions were called reflection nights, where there would take part in other leadership activities and reflect on their experience days.

“Every month had a different theme. Some months we were learning about culture, Artificial Intelligence, technology, service, and all these different things,” said Greenslade.

During the service-themed month, they were informed about poverty and statistics about food insecurity. After the learning, they did a simulation of what it would feel like to experience poverty. They were given a scenario and made decisions about how they would react. For example, they had 30 minutes to go grocery shopping, but they had limitations and were put in a place where they couldn’t afford food. Later in the day, they went to volunteer at the food pantry.

YLI values learning through experience and travelling to new places to do so.

“We went to the Capitol and talked to lawmakers, senators, and representatives. We went to the DMACC Ankeny culinary school,” said Blum.

There are many benefits being involved in this experience and learning about new topics.

“It helps to network yourself and meet new people, and experience things that you might not have been aware about in the community,” said Blum. “I’ve learned how to network myself. We had a networking night where we got a bunch of people from different careers and walks of life.”

The benefits from this program aren’t only confined to learning, but also the relationships formed.

“I made a really good group of friends from other schools. Kelsey and I have this fun group, and we’re actually going to each other’s grad parties,” said Blum.

Through communication, they were able to learn about perspectives they hadn’t considered yet.

“I learned listening skills. You have to listen to other people’s opinions even if you don’t necessarily agree with them,” said Greenslade. “And learning how to communicate over hard and challenging topics was something we constantly worked on. Talking about controversial things was a big part of it, but it’s always about understanding each other.”

At the end of the program, each participant gave a speech about their leadership story and what they accomplished during YLI. In May, they will have their graduation ceremony from the program.

“Going into YLI, there are people from different cultures and backgrounds. There were five people who immigrated from different countries,” said Greenslade. “Hearing their experiences and learning those perspectives was just an opportunity you really don’t have anywhere else.”