By Elizabeth Lenart | Contributor
Based in 2021, the Youth Leadership Council (YLC) of The Storehouse Community Center was established to offer highschool management expertise whereas fulfilling the mission of The Storehouse to feed, dress, and care as neighbors in a single North Texas neighborhood. This 12 months’s group of 40 college students from 19 space excessive colleges in Carrollton, Dallas, Frisco, Plano, and Richardson took their service a step past, launching a number of influence initiatives whereas studying methods to work finest as a workforce.
This 12 months’s theme, “Creating Profitable Groups,” was constructed round Google’s Mission Aristotle—a landmark examine that explored what makes groups thrive. Every month, pupil leaders facilitated interactive studying periods on 5 traits recognized within the examine: psychological security, dependability, construction & readability, that means, and influence. The analysis, a multi-year initiative, discovered psychological security — the place workforce members really feel protected to take dangers and be weak — as probably the most vital aspect of workforce success.
YLC Squad Leaders Abigail Muccio, Ava Henry, Blair Neumayer, Caroline Hathaway, Carter Jacob and Assistant Squad Leaders Joshua Montes, Nikhil Aluri, Nina Zucconi, Sophia Perez, Tessa Devasia developed the assembly content material alongside their squad members and applied studying actions specializing in these traits.
“I used to be fairly impressed with the creativity of squad leaders in coordinating these studying periods,” stated Ben Skye, director of communications and tradition and YLC advisor at The Storehouse. “By impediment programs, skits, discussions, and extra, every assembly introduced the ideas to life in memorable methods, serving to college students construct management and teamwork abilities they’ll carry into their futures.”
“Final 12 months, we spent loads of time studying about our character profiles and determining our particular person strengths and weaknesses,” stated Raghav Gupta, senior, Plano West Senior Excessive Faculty. “This 12 months constructed on that basis, and we obtained to essentially dig into what makes a workforce work. Management isn’t nearly you — it’s about how you’re employed with different individuals, and studying about Mission Aristotle helped all of us perceive how to try this higher.”
“By impediment programs, skits, discussions, and extra, every assembly introduced the ideas to life in memorable methods, serving to college students construct management and teamwork abilities they’ll carry into their futures.”
Ben Skye, director of communications and tradition, The Storehouse
The group additionally got here collectively in groups to launch a sequence of initiatives that might immediately profit The Storehouse. When Joseph’s Coat clothes closet wanted heat clothes for the winter, the scholars created a advertising and marketing marketing campaign with supplies and served as liaisons for 2 massive excessive colleges whom they requested to launch drives: Plano West and John Paul II, which collected a mixed 562 objects. The council additionally closed out the 12 months with a socks and underwear drive which resulted in 402 donations – a urgent want they discovered about whereas volunteering.
Over the summer time, YLC alumna and founding member Rishika Chimaji — now a junior at Texas A&M majoring in environmental science — returned to The Storehouse to finish the eight-week Nonprofit Administration internship. Whereas working within the meals pantry, Chimaji seen that broken packages of oats, although nonetheless fit for human consumption, have been being put aside and left unused. Drawing on her educational background, she proposed a brand new YLC mission: repurposing the oats into protein bites for neighbors attending The Storehouse’s Saturday morning Academy schooling lessons. Made with oats, honey, peanut butter, chia seeds, and vanilla, the protein bites shortly grew to become a well-liked and energizing snack for Academy college students. Getting ready them grew into an ongoing YLC workforce effort — a mission that mixed sustainability, creativity, and care for his or her neighbors. This 12 months, the scholars ready greater than 1,100 protein bites.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our council and the influence they’ve made not solely by means of their service hours but additionally by means of these a number of initiatives,” added Skye. “Rishika’s mission is a chief instance of what we hope our YLC members take away from their 12 months or years of service at The Storehouse. For her to see a necessity, take the initiative, and apply what she has discovered in faculty to her deep dedication to the YLC and our mission to look after our neighbors was extraordinarily rewarding to observe. Not solely that, her efforts and initiative launched a YLC mission that may doubtless be continued within the years to come back.”
Because the 40 members of the 2024–25 Youth Management Council wrapped up the council’s fourth 12 months, they gathered to replicate on their accomplishments, acknowledge their leaders, and honor their graduating seniors. In addition they celebrated this 12 months’s recipients of the David A. Huerta Scholar Volunteer Award* for probably the most hours of service:
Joshua Eappen (79.5 hours, eleventh grade, Frisco Memorial Excessive Faculty)
Nina Zucconi (74.25 hours, twelfth grade, Plano West Senior Excessive Faculty)
Misha Kandukuri (71 hours, eleventh grade, Plano West Senior Excessive Faculty)
Altogether, the 40 YLC college students contributed a formidable 1,655.5 hours of service — averaging 41.38 hours per member, effectively above the council’s 30-hour annual requirement.
Past their scheduled service days, many council members additionally volunteered independently throughout all 4 of The Storehouse’s core packages, lending their time and abilities within the clothes closet, neighbor care, schooling, and meals pantry packages.
Twenty-one seniors have been honored for his or her service, together with founding members Raghav Gupta (Plano West Senior Excessive Faculty) and Charlotte Bray (Plano East Senior Excessive Faculty), who helped develop the YLC into the thriving program it’s right this moment.
“The YLC is likely one of the finest experiences I’ve ever had,” stated Bray. “I used to be very shy and introverted as a 9th grader, and since being part of the YLC, I’ve turn out to be extra snug opening up, speaking, and being seen. This entire expertise has formed me into being extra of a frontrunner than I ever thought I could possibly be. It’s a cool factor to be part of a bunch of leaders devoted to serving to individuals. If I hadn’t joined YLC as a freshman, I truthfully don’t know the place I’d be right this moment.”
“That is my third 12 months main the Youth Management Council, and it’s been unimaginable to not solely watch the expansion of the council but additionally our particular person members,” added Skye. “After two years of creating the construction, this 12 months’s council stepped into their very own – taking over initiatives that really made an influence at The Storehouse. These have been initiatives uniquely designed by and for the YLC.”
“The Storehouse created the YLC to offer college students a possibility to serve our neighbors whereas creating life and management abilities,” stated Candace Winslow, CEO, The Storehouse Group Heart. “And annually below the management of Ben Skye, I’m overjoyed to see it become a lot extra. College students aren’t solely studying extra about themselves, however they’re additionally seeing that they will create optimistic change on the earth.”
Management isn’t nearly you — it’s about how you’re employed with different individuals, and studying about Mission Aristotle helped all of us perceive how to try this higher.”
Raghav Gupta, senior, Plano West Senior Excessive Faculty
In her remarks on the council’s year-end celebration on April 26, Winslow highlighted analysis displaying that prime faculty college students who volunteer and interact in management packages just like the YLC are more likely to step into management roles and keep lively in neighborhood service all through their grownup lives. She shared with the scholars, “The work you’re doing right this moment is planting seeds for a lifetime of management and repair.”
*DAVID A. HUERTA, 22, the award’s namesake, started volunteering at The Storehouse at age 14 after he and his household arrived in Plano as immigrants from Venezuela. He volunteered weekly, helped discovered the YLC, and is a latest graduate of College of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor’s diploma in finance. He’s a YLC advisor and works half time with The Storehouse workforce.
The Storehouse Community Center (previously The Storehouse of Collin County) is a nonprofit group devoted to serving residents of Collin, Dallas, and Denton counties by means of meals, clothes, sources, schooling, and employment help. By creating sturdy partnerships and providing transformational packages, TSCC works to deal with the basis causes of meals insecurity and empower neighbors to realize self-sufficiency. Throughout its earlier fiscal 12 months, The Storehouse served 180,000 unduplicated neighbors with the help of greater than 2,000 volunteers. Go to www.thestorehousecc.org. The Storehouse EIN: 27-1883333
Whereas the YLC roster is full for the 2025–26 12 months, The Storehouse welcomes all highschool college students to volunteer. To enroll, go to www.thestorehousecc.org/volunteer-sign-up. To be taught extra in regards to the Youth Management Council, go to www.thestorehousecc.org/ylc.
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