Welcome to 2014, YLP fans!
We're ramping up for an incredibly eventful semester! The calendar is packed with great outdoor activities for YLP participants, unique speaker events for the YLP Speaker Series on campus, and professional development workshops to better prepare our students with practical and effective skillsets.
YLP's focus for the month of February will be exploring cultural relevancy as it relates to leadership and environmentalism. Ranger Shelton Johnson, renowned interpreter, orator, and story teller, is coming back to UC Merced on Thursday, February 13, from 5:30 to 7:00pm. Make sure to put this event on your calendar! You will be inspired, humored, and empowered by Shelton's journey to discovering his passion for national parks and his fight for equal access to these majestic and historic places.
Throughout this semester, YLP participants in the second year of the program, also known as the Social Change Practicum or SCP, will execute community-impacting capstone projects. One team of SCP students is developing a program to educate Merced and UC Merced community members on the benefits of home gardening as a viable way to produce healthy food options and to reduce personal food costs. The capstone project process is a very challenging, but fulfilling, experience for YLP participants as they put their leadership knowledge to the test, causing positive change in the world around them.
Stay tuned for a monthly newsletter designed by YLP intern and alumnus, Alejandra Guzman. Ale hopes to provide readers with a window into the YLP experience and to bring a greater sense of community within the family of YLP participants, alumni, and supporters.
Cheers!
Jacob Croasdale
Yosemite Leadership Coordinator
University of California, Merced
jcroasdale@ucmerced.edu
