Bridging our Youth Leadership Council to our work
Youth voices and ideas took center stage during a February 12 webinar with GFC’s founding Youth Leadership Council members.
Antonina Lewandowska, Mete Coban, Nasra Ayub, and Sasha Alexandra Sternik all shared their views on a range of subjects from the importance of investing in children and youth, to the vital role funders like GFC play in the development of their organizations.
Over 30 GFC supporters tuned in and directly engaged with our four members. Online supporters asked questions related to how one balances youth leadership while gaining wisdom and experience from older generations, and how the youth leadership council is going to work within GFC going forward.
During the webinar, council member and activist Nasra spoke about how, no matter how many times young people are pushed back, they come back – bigger and stronger than ever.
“As a young person, you have to find that inner strength – I think that’s why we push all the time. We have to be strong in these kind of situations where people are always trying to silence you,” Nasra added.
Our audience engaged fully in the presentation and offered some words of wisdom throughout, which was gratefully received by us all here at GFC.
Reflections Post-Webinar
Mete shared, “Yesterday’s call reaffirmed why I joined the GFC youth leadership council, which was to connect with social innovators from across the globe, passionate about making changes to their own communities.”
Sasha was also very happy after the call. “I was super pumped after the session yesterday because it gave me a chance to both remind myself why I decided to join the council, as well as learn a little bit more about my colleagues,” she said. “I can’t wait to start working with a bunch of extremely talented and experienced individuals. I feel like I’m learning so much for my own development, and the future.”
Antonina reflected, “Yesterday’s call was extremely important to me, as it was the first time I’ve heard the other members of the council – the event left me even more excited about my participation in the project and reinforced my belief that we are a group of young experts with great potential, both individually and as a team.”