■亚裔青少年通讯社 Joshua Chen （Panther Creek 高中）报道
7月22日-27日，我有幸参加了青少年领导和社会参与峰会。这是一场为期六天的沉浸式夏令营，由MOVENC基金会、APAPA卡罗莱纳分会和州议员Ya Liu办公室共同组织。在这个营地中，我与各领域的现任领导者、创新者和专家进行了互动，同时学习如何运用我的领导技能并在我的社区中发挥领导作用。
公民参与
在整整一周的时间里，我们被要求完成一个关于北卡州各种问题的服务学习项目，如教育、住房、小企业等。我们不仅进一步了解了影响我们州的许多重大问题，还发展了我们的批判性思维和创造力，以寻找解决每个问题的方法。在我的案例中，我的小组选择了环境问题，这促使我们提出了一个非营利组织的建议，该组织旨在提高环保意识，鼓励人们采用更可持续的做法，并组织活动来清理我们的社区。
这个服务学习项目不仅让我们看到我们如何有可能影响我们的社区，还通过Koala Craft举办的活动直接帮助他人。这个小企业和艺术工作室帮助我们创作玻璃画、Perler珠等。这些作品后来被拍卖，所得款项捐赠给了改善我们社区的各种慈善机构。
公共演讲与辩论
除了公民参与之外，夏令营还强调了公共演讲和沟通的重要性。例如，营地辅导员举办了一场伦理碗比赛，讨论了诸如人工智能艺术版权保护和暴力抵抗等伦理问题。此外，峰会还包括由总统候选人和行业领袖的专业演讲和辩论教练Michael Hoeppner教授的课程。Michael对每个小组的服务学习项目的内容和演讲进行了个性化反馈，还提供了几种声乐练习和公共演讲基础知识的指导。
未来
峰会的组织者还确保我们有机会考虑如何为未来的生活做好准备，特别邀请了两位嘉宾：Oak Education的创始人兼专业大学顾问Teresa Ma，以及即将进入MIT的大一新生Brian Zhang。两人分享了他们在大学申请过程中的经历，并根据他们的经验提供了建议。例如，我了解到提前规划的重要性，因为申请过程涉及大量的日期。
我们还通过几次参观活动，有机会考虑未来的各种职业选择。从参观北卡罗来纳州议会大厦期间接触的政府官员，到职业探索小组中的初创公司创始人，我们探索了各种职业，并向这些社区的领导成员提出了问题。
对我个人而言，参观杜克大学的You Lab尤为难忘，因为我能看到自己学习和阅读的主题如何在活跃的研究领域中应用。简单来说，看到下一代测序和生物学中心法则等概念在现实世界中的应用，比在论文或课堂上学习要有趣得多。
个人体会
作为新兴青年领袖峰会的一名住宿营员，这次峰会无疑成为了我参加过的最难忘的营地之一。无数独特的机会发展了我对未来的看法，我还与其他有相似兴趣的营员建立了许多新的联系和友谊。无论是从专业演讲和辩论教练那里获得高度互动的反馈，还是与其他住宿学生一起打牌，这些经历使我成为了一个更好的作家、演讲者和个人——让我更加为未来做好准备。
报道原文——
Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders: My Experience at the Emerging Youth Leaders Summit
— reported by Joshua Chen, Panther Creek High School
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Emerging Youth Leaders Summit, a six-day immersive summer camp organized by the MOVENC Foundation, APAPA Carolinas, and the Office of House Representative Ya Liu. Through this camp, I was able to interact with current leaders, innovators, and experts in a wide variety of fields while simultaneously learning how to apply my leadership skills and take charge in my community.
Civic Engagement
Throughout the entire week, we were tasked with completing a service learning project about various issues in North Carolina, such as education, housing, small businesses, etc. Not only were we able to further our understanding of many of the major issues affecting our state, but we also developed our critical thinking and creativity to find solutions to address each issue. In my case, my group chose to work on environmental issues, which led us to create a proposal for a nonprofit that would raise awareness, encourage people to adopt more sustainable practices, and organize events to clean up our community.
While this service learning project allowed us to see how we could potentially influence our communities, we were also given the chance to directly aid others through the activities hosted by Koala Craft. This small business and art studio helped us create glass paintings, Perler beads, etc. Later, these works were auctioned off, and the proceeds were given to various charities that would improve our communities.
Public Speaking and Debate
In addition to civic engagement, the camp emphasized the importance of public speaking and communication. For example, the camp counselors ran an ethics bowl with debates on ethical questions such as AI art copyright protection and the ethics of violent resistance. Furthermore, the summit also included lessons from Michael Hoeppner, a professional speech and debate coach for presidential candidates and industry leaders. Michael provided personalized feedback on the content and delivery of each group’s service learning project, as well as several vocal exercises and instructions on the fundamentals of public speaking.
Future
The organizers of the Emerging Youth Leaders Summit also ensured that we were given the opportunity to consider how we should prepare for our future lives. Two special guests were invited: Teresa Ma, the founder of Oak Education and a professional college counselor, and also Brian Zhang, a rising freshman at MIT. The two shared their experiences on the college application process and shared advice based on what they had learned and taught. For instance, I learned about the importance of planning ahead given the sheer amount of dates involved with the application process.
Later on, we were even able to consider various future careers based on several tours. From government officials during our guided tour of the NC General Assembly Building to founders of startups during our career exploration panel, we explored various careers and asked questions to these leading members of our community. For me personally, visiting the You Lab at Duke University was particularly memorable as I could see how topics that I have learned and read about are applied in areas of active research. Simply put, it was much more interesting to see how concepts such as next-generation sequencing and the central dogma of biology are used in the real world compared to in a paper or classroom.
Personal Reflection
As one of the residential campers at the Emerging Youth Leaders Summit, this summit has undoubtedly become one of the most memorable camps I have attended. There were numerous unique opportunities that have developed my outlook on my future, and I have made many new connections and friendships with other campers who have similar interests. Whether it has been getting highly interactive feedback from a professional speech and debate coach or playing card games with the other residential students, these experiences have made me a better writer, orator, and person–making me significantly more prepared for the future.
