Mexico Youth Leadership
Jóvenes en Acción
Ayusa is very proud to announce that we have been awarded a grant to run a very important initiative, the Mexico Youth Leadership Program or Jóvenes en Acción. The program is jointly sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, the Mexican Ministry of Education, and private sector companies in Mexico.
Program Goals
The Mexico Youth Leadership Program seeks to inspire Mexican teens from communities rife with unemployment, drugs, violence and insufficient education to become future leaders and agents of positive change in their community. This is a 5 week exchange program in which Mexican youth are given the opportunity to study and develop their leadership skills through:
- An intensive educational summer camp focused on leadership skill development, based at the University of California at Berkeley.
- A practical workshop grounding the students in American culture and language
- A week focused on civic engagement in Washington D.C.
Program Components
The program design incorporates community service projects, cultural enrichment activities, global skills training, and other types of experiential individual and group learning to develop civic responsibility and commitment to communities. The Mexico Youth Leadership Program seeks to inspire Mexican teens to be future leaders and agents of positive change. Additionally, Ayusa aims to equip participants to take action locally on issues of international importance and to empower, inspire and prepare them to work towards creating a peaceful international community.
Mexico Youth Leadership participants will experience:
- Extensive peer-to-peer interaction with American high school students.
- Active participation in community service-learning projects, creating a foundation for further community projects when students return to Mexico.
- A conference in Washington DC focused on Democracy and Civil Engagement at the national and international level.
