On Friday, November 19, Youth Leadership Lincoln met at the Foundry in downtown Lincoln for their third monthly seminar. Youth Leadership Lincoln (YLL) is the youth cohort made up of forty three sophomores all from different high schools in Lancaster county. The youth cohort meets once a month together learning about our community and how they can get involved. Each of the seminars includes time for “cohort within a cohort”. This is group time that is used for the students to put together a presentation about the focus of the seminar. It also includes sharing and facilitation to their peers, presentations from several speakers, and other activities related to the focus of the seminar.

Their most recent seminar on the 19th of November was all about community visions. Several speakers from different organizations in Lincoln such as the Community Health Endowment, Bluestem Health, Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, Penguin Project, and Lincoln Parks and Recreation attended. Through these speakers, students learned about the Lincoln community and how they can apply their visions for the community into their lives.

Liberty Spaulding, is a sophomore here at East. After listening to the speech made by Lori Seibel, CEO and President of the Community Health Endowment, Spaulding said, “Not everyone has the chance to think about the future because they are trying to just make it to the next day. It is our responsibility to try and make the future realistic so they know it is available to them. We need to make life easier for them.”

Students took part in activities such as a scavenger hunt through downtown Lincoln, and the “play spent” simulation. These activities gave students an opportunity to explore their community and give them an idea of what it would be like to survive a month with only one thousand dollars. Each seminar provides students with new opportunities to learn about themselves and how they can be better leaders.

“Learning about all the things that are happening in our community today and how we can make it better in the future,” Spaulding said at the end of the seminar on Friday.

There are currently nine students from East that are a part of Youth Leadership Lincoln Cohort 25. One of them isLiberty Spaulding. Next spring, current freshmen have the opportunity to apply to be a part of Youth Leadership Lincoln 26. If accepted, students will participate in a retreat in the fall and eight different seminars throughout the school year. Many students in the cohort including Liberty Spaulding highly encourage freshmen to look into Lincoln Leadership and consider applying for next year’s cohort.

“ one hundred percent. It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn what you’re passionate about and prepare for your future,” Spalding said.
The next seminar the youth cohort will be participating in will be on January 28, 2022. The fourth seminar topic will be government. There will not be a seminar in December, instead December is the cohort’s civic engagement (or volunteer month), where students will have the chance to volunteer throughout Lincoln.