Volunteer Spotlight: Teen Leaders Join MLK Day of Service Advisory Council

  • Posted on: 2 May 2019
  • By: mfurukawa

Teen Leaders Join MLK Day of Service Advisory Council

Written by Mary Ellen Payne, Board Liason for Volunteer Arlington
 

Pictured from left to right: Kristen Alleyne, Yasmina Mansor, Karina Peña

For the past two years, Volunteer Arlington has engaged leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors to serve on the MLK Advisory Council. This year, it was decided that a youth voice would offer a tremendous benefit to our planning efforts. We are delighted with the addition of three dynamic Arlington high school students, Yasmina Mansour, Karina Pena and Kristen Alleyne. After our first meeting, their input and dedication is already making a difference.               

Meet our new members:

While only a freshman at Yorktown High School, Yasmina Mansour is already an experienced volunteer.  Among her many activities, Yasmina serves on the Arlington Teen Network Board.  She has a particular passion to insure that the teen voice is heard in our county, as she believes that her peer group has many impactful ideas.  The MLK Day of Service in Yasmina’s opinion shows teens that they can either create their own service projects or participate in some amazing pre-existing volunteer projects.  With teen representation now on the steering committee, Yasmina is optimistic that more teens will be reached through social media, and new volunteer experiences will be created which will result in a significant teen turnout on January 20, 2020.  Yasmina is confident that the positive experience of MLK Day of Service 2020, will have teens coming back year after year.

Like Yasmina, Karina Peña is an experience volunteer.  Karina is a junior at Wakefield High School.  Motivated to help people, Karina participates in Latinas Leading Tomorrow, and teaches pre-school each Sunday at her church. Karina believes that events like the MLK Day of Service impacts the community in a positive way.  She thinks that the student participation on the steering committee will have a great impact on MLK Day of Service 2020 because of the different perspectives at the planning table.  Karina feels strongly that this event should involve and include people from all backgrounds.  MLK Day of Service can be a day where everyone can give back to our community. 

Kristen Alleyne, an actively involved high school junior, hails from Washington-Lee High School.  Kristen values leadership, and community outreach which she utilizes in her membership in the UNICEF Club, Sisters on Purpose Club and varsity track and field.  Kristen sees that participation in the MLK Day of Service Steering Committee furthers leadership and service skill building.  Kristen believes that as members of the younger generation, her fellow teen steering committee members have an inside view on teenage life and can readily reach members of their age group. Confident that this teen trio will bring newer, more creative ideas and promotion techniques to the planning process, Kristen predicts that more teens and young adults will participate in the 2020 program.

The energy and creative ideas exuded from this three teen leaders had all the other members of the steering committee predicting that MLK Day of Service 2020, will be the best  - yet!