Youth Leadership Exchange opens applications for future leaders in OKC

The Youth Leadership Exchange (YLX) is a leadership program for high school sophomores through seniors in the Oklahoma City metro area. The Youth Leadership Exchange provides leadership training and community engagement opportunities.

The Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch spoke with Program Director Makenzie Kenfield and current Youth in Action student Kaitlyn Luong about the Youth Leadership Exchange and its upcoming application deadline.

What is the YLX program?

It's a program dedicated to high school sophomores through seniors. And we go as far north into Edmond, far south as Moore. East is Choctaw, West is Yukon and Mustang, but basically, we create classes for kiddos who want to learn more about their leadership potential and how to be better leaders within their community and then connect them with community leaders here in the city.

What is the goal of these meetings?

Each class offers a different type of goal. So with leadership skills, the goal of that program is to create more a holistic approach to leadership skills. With Youth in Action, which is our mini-foundation, their goal is to raise money for a nonprofit here in the city. And then for Youth Council, that's basically you are searching through all of Oklahoma City, learning about the resources provided for citizens and getting more of a city government, municipal government experience.

Why is the program important?

For me, I feel like this is really important because it's setting me up for the future. Like, I learn a lot of academic stuff in school, but I feel like in YLX, I've learned how to build connections and how to reach out with people that I wouldn't learn in school. Like, I learned how to apply these leadership skills and use them in the future. And you're probably meeting folks from other high schools, which will help in the future as well.

What are the requirements?

We are an application-based program. So the students will have to go on to our website and apply with our application link. They will need two reference letters and they will also need to go through an interview process once they are done with the application. But the application is due this Friday at 1159. So we're really hoping we can get as many kiddos in the Oklahoma City metro area to apply.

When is the deadline?

The application is due this Friday at 11:59 p.m.