President Nykara from Agent of Hope to who knows where!
This summer, Agent of Hope Nykara and a small group of Hope for Opelousas High Schoolers attended the Louisiana Youth Seminar, a high school leadership program pulling over 300 leaders from throughout the state and the US. Nykara worked throughout the week to attain the honor of LYS President. This included speeches, strategy for a political party caucus and a general election of over 300 of her peers.
Nykara attended LYS the previous year and set a goal to become LYS President in her final year as a student in the program. She credited her experience as an HFO Agent of Hope as part of her final speech. During the race she gave a speech sharing with her political party an experience with an HFO student that especially taught her that "Love Changes Everything"
"[Being an Agent of Hope] taught me that if I can touch the hearts of one person, how many more hearts can I change? I can't promise you I can immediately make everything better... I can promise you hope is strong." - NYKARA'S SPEECH ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE WITH ONE OF OUR KIDS
Read about what Nykara had to say about her LYS Experience:
When I first attended LYS last year, in 2016, I didn’t know that I would be back for another year. I didn’t know that I would encounter some people that would then become my lifelong friends. I didn’t know that I would return home again with amazing stories to tell, about everything I experienced. And I definitely, didn’t know that I would win LYS 2017 President. These are just a few things that could happen to someone if they took a week out of their summer to go to LYS.
LYS is one of the greatest summer programs I have ever gone to. In my opinion, LYS changes the lives of people every day and I can surely say everyone else who has been to LYS agrees with me. I honestly wish I could go back another year just to experience it all over again, especially winning President.
Becoming LYS President is literally one of my greatest achievements of my life and I am genuinely honored that I won. I strictly encourage future delegates to be open minded about LYS and try your best to be involved in everything it has to offer. Then, take what you learned to your community and change the lives of the people around you, just like LYS would change yours. I hope I can become a JC or a counselor next year at LYS because I never want to forget about my LYS spirit. Thank you, LYS for everything you have done for me not just as a delegate who attended your program, but as a person. Nykara<3