Hello everyone! My name is Jordan Eck and over the past few months I have been an intern for United Way Youth Venture. By the time you’re reading this, I will no longer be an intern here. While I’ve been here I’ve been able to meet so many of you, as well as amazing people such as Lauren, Donna, Michelle and Katelyn, whom I worked with closely. When I was younger I wished I had a program like this that I could have participated in. The school district that I was in didn’t offer anything like this. Please make sure to treasure this program and treasure these moments in your life. Being able to work with this team in this program has opened my eyes to a lot of different opportunities, as well as different ways that I can help or inspire those that need a helping hand or those that just need to hear what I have to offer.

In my time here I’ve had the opportunity to experience great events such as Healthy Minds and Portrait of a Graduate. And you’ve all had the chance to as well! Wasn’t that a lot of fun? I think so, we all learned a lot that day and I couldn’t thank you all enough for your patience and participation. Most importantly, I hope you all had fun while you were there. I know that it was a stressful day for our team behind the scenes but there wasn’t one moment where my attention was pulled away from this event. It was so interesting; there were sessions for everyone, no matter what your interest was. For the most part everyone was so grateful and happy to be there. Seeing how these events work, seeing how much work goes into them and then seeing results makes me so unbelievably happy. This whole remote situation is new for everyone; no one has all of the answers, and that’s okay. Despite the hiccups that we may have had, we still pushed on and didn’t give up. That’s an important message from me to all of you – No matter how hard things may look, never give up and keep moving forward. Never let anything stop you from doing what you want to do, whether that’s going into a dream career or just being your authentic self. I may be aging myself here but as Shia LaBeouf says, “Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Make your dreams come true. Nothing is impossible”. If there’s anything you remember from this blog post, please let it be that you never give up on anything you dream for yourself. You CAN do it, and this program is here to help you build skills so that you feel that you can do it. So just DO it!

Being able to take part in Youth Venture when I did made me so happy. Meeting all of you was amazing, I’ve never met a group of students as passionate about solving issues going on in a community until I started attending those meetings. I couldn’t express enough how happy it made me to see how much you all cared about the world around you. There’s a lot happening in the world right now and it can be really hard to keep up with and a bit overwhelming, but you all seem very knowledgeable, no matter what your age may have been. I mostly got to shadow over Crocker Elementary School’s classroom, and the students were absolutely delightful. Whenever I attended a virtual meeting, hearing all of the ideas on what population we should help first and what we should do for them made me tear up. If you happen to read this, please keep having that same ambitious, caring heart that you all do. You’re the next step to making this world a better place, and I can tell by meeting every single one of you that you’re going to do just that. And to everyone reading this that I haven’t met, I know you’re going to do that, too. Keep your head up, stay strong and stay true to you. You’re all going to go far and do amazing things, keep your eyes towards the prize and you’ll get there.

I know that this blog post has been all over the place, so I’ll wrap it up by saying thank you. Thank you to United Way Youth Venture for letting me intern here. Thank you to my colleagues that helped me out when I got stuck. And thank you to every teacher, student and faculty member that makes this possible. I’m so glad I got to see just a little bit into your program and I can’t wait to see what upcoming events are next. I hope you all have a great day and I’m proud of all of you for all that you do. Take care and stay safe.

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Intern, Jordan

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Youth Venture Students

My outgoing message as a UWYV intern

Posted on May 14, 2021

Hello everyone! My name is Jordan Eck and over the past few months I have been an intern for United Way Youth Venture. By the time you’re reading this, I will no longer be an intern here. While I’ve been here I’ve been able to meet so many of you, as well as amazing people […]

Having Fun Social Distancing – UWYV Samoset Venturer Emily Leon

Posted on May 21, 2020December 16, 2020

Team Helping Paws final

The last time I saw Emily Leon, from the UWYV Team Helping Paws, was March 6, 2020. That was my last day at Samoset before the shutdown of schools due to COVID-19. That day, she excitedly told me how she and Ashlee (her teammate) were having a successful donation drive for pet supplies for the […]

UWYV Virtual Team Launches, Fundraisers and Composting – Why Not?

Posted on May 7, 2020December 16, 2020

group of boys standing holding large check

Just because we all continue our social distancing, it doesn’t mean that UWYV students stop Changemaking. When it comes to the ideas of UWYV virtual team launches, fundraisers and composting at Samoset – why not? UWYV students are Changemakers all-the-time! I was able to virtually meet with four of our UWYV Samoset students with the […]

Where Are They Now? Featuring UWYV Venturer Caleb VanHillo

Posted on April 30, 2020December 16, 2020

Our very own UWYV Outreach Liaison, Jake VanHillo interviewed his 19 year old brother Caleb VanHillo as a student who participated in Youth Venture. Like many students, Caleb started UWYV in middle school. But for Caleb, that was only the beginning! In fact, he took part in UWYV for three years, received a UWVY Scholarship […]