From learning to leading: Building the next generation of community leaders
College is a time when many young people begin connecting what they are learning with the work they may want to pursue after graduation.
San Francisco’s nonprofits and community-based organizations offer one place to make that connection. These organizations are woven into the daily life of the city, working alongside schools, families, businesses, and local government to respond to the needs of neighborhoods and the people who live in them.
For college students considering careers in the social sector, an internship offers a chance to see that work up close and understand the role they might play in it.
This summer, CYC welcomed UC Santa Cruz students Ayla and Georgia through the HumLaunch Mentorship Program, a summer program from the UCSC Humanities Division that connects Humanities undergraduates with alumni for short-term professional experiences. Through job shadowing and project placements, students receive mentorship while gaining exposure to different career fields and seeing how their humanities education can translate into the workplace.
At CYC, Ayla and Georgia spent time alongside staff and young people, observing programs in action and documenting what they saw. Their experience offered a firsthand look at the role community-based organizations play in San Francisco and the people behind that work. The story below grew out of their time with a group of middle school students as they worked together to create a mural.
We’re grateful to Ayla and Georgia for spending the summer with CYC youth and for sharing what they observed and learned along the way. We hope you enjoy their story.
More than a mural: Youth learning through community
For a group of middle school kids participating in CYC summer program, creating a mural started before anyone picked up a paintbrush.
The kids first visited Balmy Alley in San Francisco, where they walked through the neighborhood and viewed its murals up close. During the field trip, they learned about gentrification and discussed how changes to a neighborhood can affect the people who live there.
The trip gave the youth a chance to learn outside of the classroom and connect those conversations to a real place. After seeing the murals for themselves, they returned ready to begin a project of their own.
Before painting, the participants had to decide what they wanted to create.
They started by brainstorming together. A couple of large sheets of paper were filled with possible themes, including education, reading, robotics, coding, film, music, and the Richmond community. From there, participants moved on to images that could represent those ideas, such as Kirby for video games and udon, boba, and sashimi for food. The kids then made their own sketches, experimenting with those ideas before anything made its way onto the mural.
That planning eventually turned into painting.
The participants gathered around the mural and worked alongside one another as it began to take shape. Some focused on smaller details while others worked on larger sections. Bright landscapes, characters, and other images gradually filled the space as he youth added their work to the larger piece.
The process required them to do more than make art. They had to share materials and space, listen to one another’s ideas, make decisions, and figure out how different pieces could work together.
For the kids, the project also changed what learning looked like. Their experience moved from walking through Balmy Alley and talking about gentrification to brainstorming around a table, sketching on paper, and finally painting together. Instead of keeping everything inside a classroom, they were able to learn through the places they visited and the work they created.
The finished mural was the result of that process. While we don’t have the participants’ own explanation of what each image represents, the steps behind the mural show how much went into creating it. Their ideas moved from conversations and rough sketches to something they could see taking shape in front of them.
This mural project is one example of how CYC creates opportunities for young people to learn, lead, and contribute to their communities. Here, that meant giving kids the chance to explore their surroundings, develop their own ideas, and work together to turn those ideas into something they could share.
Looking for your own internship?
College isn’t the only time to start gaining experience in the workplace. For San Francisco young adults ages 18–24, CYC Young Adult WorkLink (YAWL) program is opening applications for paid internships with local businesses and organizations.
Young adults can gain experience in fields such as marketing, business, education, sports, retail, animal care, and more. Along the way, they build workplace skills, strengthen their resumes, and get a firsthand look at different industries across San Francisco. You don’t need to have your future figured out. An internship is one way to start exploring it.
Ready to get started? Apply for a paid Young Adult WorkLink internship and take your next step with a San Francisco employer.