Nothing short of a paradigm shift: students learn leadership through nonprofit work

Five local students are nearing the end of their eight-week internships at nonprofit organizations, where they have been learning how civic, nonprofit and business leadership work together to create a vibrant community and economy.

The students are Emily Bryant, a graduate of Brandywine High School; Rachel Cox, a graduate of Cab Calloway School of the Arts; Staci Bechard, a rising senior at Cab Calloway; Jessica Hughes, a graduate of Padua Academy; and Kylie Schlegel, a graduate of Red Lion Christian Academy.

Bank of America Charitable Foundation's signature philanthropic program, the national Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, selects five high school students in 45 markets for the paid internships. The program helps high school juniors and seniors discover how they can help shape their communities.

Bryant, Cox and Schlegel have been interning at the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, while Bechard and Hughes have been interning at Junior Achievement.

Bryant of Brandywine Hundred, said she’s had a bit of a paradigm shift since beginning her work at the LACC.

“I’m a Latina but in my community I haven’t seen some of the issues up close like I have here,” Bryant said. “I was a little complacent before. You could sit isolated in your suburban world. You’re not facing many problems. Now that I’ve seen this, it’s something I want to be involved with long term.”

The LACC interns have worked in youth services, early childhood development, public relations, the mental health clinic and the English as a second language program – even teaching a class. They have also shadowed family service caseworkers at the LACC or, in few instances, out in the field.

The LACC is “an emergency room for social services” as well as a provider of lifelong learning and empowerment programs for its constituents, according to Executive Director Maria Matos. Lifelong learning begins with the 1-year-olds in the Early Development Center, and continues through Los Jardines, the senior residence.

“I wanted them to get a wealth of experience, a breadth of everything,” Matos said. “They’ll become nonprofit leaders.”

Cox of Newark, said she picked the LACC because the culture is fun and she had an opportunity to visit the LACC as a member of the Youth Philanthropy Board, which is with the Delaware Community Foundation. (She serves on that board with Bryant.)

“You volunteer at school and during the summer. But here you see the people and you see the children,” she said. “It just brings everything home to you. It’s very powerful.”

Bryant wishes more teenagers would actively seek to improve their community.

“A lot of us are not involved. It’s easy just to say, ‘Oh, it’s not our problem. We don’t have a responsibility for this,’” she said. “I was telling my friend about this and she said, ‘I don’t think that’s my burden to bear.’ I said, ‘That’s not the mindset that you should have'.”

In addition to the internships, the teens were among 200 student leaders who participated in a week-long student leadership summit presented by the Close Up Foundation in Washington D.C. They participated in a series of leadership sessions designed to inspire them as future leaders.

“We feel strongly that investing in leadership is very important and is a sound business practice – whether it’s the student leaders or the neighborhood builders” that seek to improve and revitalize communities,” said April Birmingham, vice president and market development manager for Bank of America.”