Author: Irshad Molla
We hope you all had an exciting summer!
School is officially back in session! As we embark on the fresh new year ahead of us, we wanted to highlight some of the youth work that happened at Living Room Conversations throughout this summer!
To begin, we welcomed aboard two summer interns who are currently in their senior year of high school. Yordanos Lemma and Chelsea Osei worked on engaging projects involving discussions, social media management, event coordination, guide content creation, and more. Lemma played a pivotal role in strengthening and rebranding the youthconvos social media account. Her efforts resulted in an increase of over 50 followers within just a few weeks, and she also crafted recruitment posts for the Youth Council Board.
Meanwhile, Osei took charge of planning and executing an event in collaboration with Citizen University’s Power Garden, focusing on the topic of “Cancel Culture.” She promoted and led conversations addressing questions related to free speech and accountability. The event was a success, drawing participation from young individuals from all over the nation who engaged in meaningful discussions about this pressing issue, highlighting the urgency of addressing it.
Additionally, our interns took on the project of launching “Teen Talks,” which involves creating guides tailored to engage youths of various age groups in discussions that resonate with their demographics. These guides cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to Cancel Culture, Technology and Relationships, the American Dream, Higher Education, Belonging, and many others. They will be launching on our website very soon, make sure to be on the lookout for them!
Our last highlight features our Youth Engagement Partner, Irshad Molla. She had the honor of being invited as a session speaker for the World Affairs Council Pittsburgh’s Youth Board and Youth Fellows. The session, titled “Use Your Voice,” had a primary objective of empowering youth voices and promoting civic advocacy. There was also a breakout session during which the youth engaged in discussions related to the Living Room Conversations guide on Education Justice. Overall, the youth found the session to be beneficial, and Molla loved the opportunity to connect with them.
These highlights provide just a glimpse of the incredible work accomplished by our youth team over the summer. We’re thrilled to announce that our summer interns will carry forward their impactful contributions as Executive Leads within the International Youth Council Board, which officially started in August. Stay tuned for the exciting projects and events they’ll be spearheading in the near future!
