By: Jordan Taylor Building Community, Empowering Youth, and Leading with Purpose in Ecuador At the heart of Youthlinc’s work in Ecuador is Evelyn Yucailla, an architect, community organizer, and passionate advocate for youth and women as drivers of lasting change. Evelyn serves as the Director and Program Coordinator of Fundación Nukari , one of Youthlinc’s key in-country partners in Ecuador. Her work centers on community development, youth leadership, gender equity, and hu

By: Kylee Finch How do you put into words the experience that you have seeing the world and all good within it? How do you put into words how much your life changes when you experience all of what the world has to offer in villages from around the world? Short answer you really can’t, long answer is the stories I have from my experience.   I have been on two Youthlinc service year trips now and each year my life is impacted more and more. The summer of 2024 I was on my first

By: Nathan Anderson Over the holiday season, Youthlinc sent out two  Friends and Family trips rooted in connection, curiosity, and shared reflection. This journey brought together people of different ages, backgrounds, and relationships, united by a desire to learn, listen, and experience life beyond our usual routines. Over the course of the trip, we engaged with Cuban communities in meaningful ways through cultural exchange, conversations with local partners, moments of ser

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 Jackie Moynihan and Lisa Whittaker Each May, Youthlinc honors outstanding, service-driven high school and college students with the Utah Young Humanitarian Award (YHA) scholarship. With the awarding of our 2020 scholarship winners right around the corner, we decided to check in with our 2012 YHA winner, Lisa Whittaker to see where she is now and how service has made a difference in

The Youthlinc Young Humanitarian Award has been recognizing service-minded Utah high school juniors and seniors and undergraduates students since 2005. Promoting humanitarianism among youth is the reason behind this annual tribute, made possible by the generous donation of the George S. Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Robert D. Kent Jr Trust, and the Michel Foundation.  As most everyone will recognize this year has been monumental to date.  With COVID-19 we were brought t

Youthlinc is pleased to announce the awarding of five academic scholarships honoring Real Life high school seniors and college students of refugee or immigrant background.  We would like to recognize the Low Family Foundation, the Barker Charitable Foundation and an anonymous donor for their contributions to make this award possible.  In 2020, we awarded one $5,000 winner, one $3,000 winner and three $2,000 winners for a total of $14,000 in college scholarships.   Rock Douka

We are proud to announce our 2020 High School Young Humanitarian Award Winner Taylor Fang, Logan High School Taylor is passionate about sharing technology with girls of diverse backgrounds. She is the founder of Girls Explore Tech (GET), a 7-week series of free, hands-on workshops for local middle-schoolers. She has also independently directed two summer camps with Junior Achievement of Utah over 16 hours. Her efforts over the past three years have directly impacted over 134

By: Tong Quang Nam I am Nam. I am writing this to send my great thanks to the organization for helping Buoc village’s residents recover and improve their living standards. As a person who has spent years in Buoc village working and living with the people there, I am very thankful and impressed by Youthlinc's assistance. Last year, after a massive landslide in Buoc village and its surrounding areas, the minority people suffered from seriously detrimental effects in terms of ch