Hundreds of students come together at youth leadership conference in Bakersfield

Education comes successful galore forms.

It doesn't lone instrumentality spot successful a schoolroom setting. It besides comes done beingness experience, inspiration and empowerment, arsenic good arsenic done the enactment of overcoming challenges that basal successful the mode of success.

More than 1,200 teens converged Thursday astatine the recently named Dignity Health Convention Center successful downtown Bakersfield to be the 25th yearly Leaders successful Life Youth Conference, a spot wherever students had the accidental to research issues that substance astir to them — whether it's intelligence health, substance abuse, leadership, clip management, societal media oregon readying for their future.

"I deliberation the astir important happening radical should recognize astir the enactment league is it's an accidental for our young radical to larn from their peers," said Anastasia Lester, a unpaid Leaders successful Life adviser.

On Thursday, the guests were exposed to 2 young keynote speakers who were consenting to stock done student-driven enactment the difficulties and challenges they experienced during their ain teen years — challenges that could person near them incapable to retrieve and spell connected to physique lives of enactment and idiosyncratic freedom.

Speaker Ashley Bendiksen, who became stateless astatine 19, told the much than 1,000 students that it wasn't until she learned to advocator for herself that she was capable to get past the effects of debilitating bullying and intelligence maltreatment during her teen years.

Lester, the Leaders successful Life adviser, said she has been moving with these younker for respective years, and she can't number the fig of affirmative "light bulb moments," idiosyncratic teens person experienced.

"I deliberation what's truly unthinkable astir this programme and the crushed I've done it for truthful galore years is it gives maine hope, it reminds maine that immoderate everybody connected the extracurricular is saying, they haven't had the accidental to enactment with these kids, they haven't had the accidental to spot these faces."

All 1,200 students had the accidental to interruption disconnected into smaller groups of astir 100 to be a fig of workshops astatine the league connected topics specified arsenic vocation readiness, diverseness training, navigating the teen satellite and the cosmopolitan situation of clip management.

"Fifty-five percent of precocious schoolhouse students study being stressed owed to occupation with clip management," said Highland High School counsellor Joanne Barrick, who led a lively and interactive treatment of the challenges of managing one's time.

"You person a batch of things vying for your attraction each the time," she told the students. "Time absorption doesn't conscionable happen. You weren't calved with it. It's a accomplishment you person to enactment on."

Another adjacent store was led by substance maltreatment counsellor and inspirational talker Andrew Jones, who utilized his grooming successful creation to support students engaged, adjacent arsenic the luncheon interruption approached.

Jones spoke particularly to those students who whitethorn acquisition regular strife astatine location oregon are lacking thing important successful their location life.

"If you bash not travel your imagination passion, you volition repetition the cycle," helium said.

Jones told students they should dainty schoolhouse similar a occupation by going to schoolhouse each time prepared to enactment and to excel.

"My oldest member who is 44 years old, he's a mid-city Crip. He's been changeable 12 times. My youngest brother, HIV positive."

He went connected to picture a household with a agelong past of problems. But Jones said helium graduated precocious schoolhouse with a 3.8 people constituent average.

"Listen to me," helium told his young audience. "Your acquisition is your archetypal instauration to the world."

Paola Vega, 14, an eighth-grader astatine Richland Junior High School successful Shafter, said she participated successful a treatment astir stereotypes and however everyone should defy being judged and evaluated successful specified a biased manner.

She said she was enjoying the conference.

Her classmate Giselle Denogean, 13, agreed, calling the league "a large experience."

"It opens your caput to much of what's retired there," she said. "It makes you much aware."