One of my favorite parts of the year is reading through applications for the Utah Young Humanitarian Award. Every application tells a different story. Some students are organizing food drives. Others are mentoring younger students, supporting refugee families, advocating for mental health, or finding creative ways to address challenges in their communities. By the end of the review process, I always walk away with the same feeling: hope. This year was no different. Youthlinc

My experience as a Youthlinc humanitarian has been nothing short of transformative. Arguably, the most impactful part has been my journey through leadership. My first trip was to the beautiful island of Fiji when I was a junior in high school. Holding the title of Youthlinc first-year humanitarian carried a heavy importance to me -I had big shoes to fill. During the preparation process, I was placed on the education committee, which was thrilling. I got to see and delegate

By Shelly Burningham, Real Life Director Real Life is an after-school tutoring and life skills peer mentoring program that partners Youthlinc with a variety of organizations in Salt Lake County. Real Life provides active, practical, after-school programming to teens, tween with refugee or immigrant status in Utah. Real Life was born through the visionary leadership of Ellie Seaborn, a Youthlinc employee at the time. She explains, "Four nights a week, I was working with

By Shelly Burningham Accepting applications through March 15, 2020. Click here to learn more about the Real Life Scholarship. Over the past few years in Real Life, many students have indicated that they want to go to college and have a decent job, but in reality there are many barriers that hinder them from following through on that dream. Because of this, Real Life implemented a new college preparation curriculum aimed at preparing high school students for post-secondary

By: Venice Lupus My name is Venice Lupus and I was a part of Fiji July 2019 as a member of the business committee. Almost everyday as a part of the business committee, myself and one other member would teach business seminars to the women of the village. There were 4 different groups of women from the village that we taught about the basics of business and marketing. Myself and another teammate had previously assigned subjects to teach to the women and would conduct a lecture