21st Century Leaders Announces 2023-2024 Youth Ambassadors

Group photo of the 2023-2024 Youth Ambassadors

21st Century Leaders Celebrates Relaunch of Youth Ambassadors Program

September 25, 2023 (Atlanta, GA)  – Congratulations to our 2023-2024 Youth Ambassadors! These 30 diverse students are committed to representing the interests and voices of the 1,600+ Georgia high school students of 21st Century Leaders (21CL) who participate in our programs each year. After keeping the Youth Ambassador program in hibernation for two years, 21CL is excited to relaunch this leadership opportunity for our students with refreshed design and purpose.

The Youth Ambassadors met together for their first meeting of the 2023-2024 term on Saturday, September 23, 2023 at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough; they were encouraged by guest speaker Kat Taylor (Director, Diversity & Inclusion at Nelson Mullins; Owner, HOTCOFFEE; 21st Century Leaders Board of Directors), exchanged perspectives, set a vision for their shared intention, built elevator pitches, and identified “legacy” as a guiding principal for themselves.

21CL’s Youth Ambassadors are responsible for representing the values and purpose of 21st Century Leaders in their schools, communities, and at 21CL events. During their term of service, they will work together to create meaningful opportunities to engage more (and new) 21st Century Leaders across Georgia.

The Youth Ambassadors serve as 21CL advocates to empower and inspire other high school students to lead. They represent the distinct ideas, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of exemplary leaders as a collective body. The Youth Ambassadors will inform and participate in special projects and contribute to live program events, under the guidance of 21CL’s Junior Board of Directors and staff.

Our 2023-2024 Youth Ambassadors are:

  • Raveena Alli, Atlanta Girls’ School, Class of 2024
  • Rishi Byakod, South Forsyth High School, Class of 2025
  • Alonnah Copeland, Blackstone Academy, Class of 2025
  • Oluwatishe Deju, Homeschool, Class of 2026
  • Prateek Doddla, Chattahoochee High School, Class of 2025
  • Leah Duffey, Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy High School, Class of 2025
  • Emmanuela Ejoga, North Cobb High School, Class of 2024
  • Brooklyn Fields, Jefferson High School, Class of 2026
  • Joshua Girgis, Montessori School of Rome, Class of 2024
  • Brianna Hare, Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, Class of 2024
  • Cindy Hernandez, North Clayton High School, Class of 2025
  • Christian Hooks, Grayson High School, Class of 2024
  • Erin Howard, Charles R. Drew Charter School, Class of 2024
  • Wolfe Hudepohl, Lovett School, Class of 2025
  • Morgan Ingram, GMC Prep High School, Class of 2024
  • Nishanth Kavuri, Lakeside High School (Evans), Class of 2024
  • Joy Lin, Ware County High School, Class of 2025
  • Emoni Love, Wheeler High School, Class of 2024
  • Siri Manekar, Northview High School, Class of 2025
  • Maya Matthews, Westlake High School, Class of 2024
  • Olaoluwa Oguneye, Decatur High School, 2024
  • Vidhi Raiyani, Putnam County High School, Class of 2026
  • Kennedy Reid, Savannah Arts Academy, Class of 2024
  • Abigail Rong, Denmark High School, Class of 2025
  • Aadi Shah, Innovation Academy High School, Class of 2026
  • Rhea Shah, Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Class of 2025
  • Thalia Smith, Midtown High School, Class of 2025
  • Ishita Sukul, Johns Creek High School, Class of 2024
  • Aarushi Verma, Lambert High School, Class of 2024
  • Katherine “Ivy” Yang, Alpharetta High School, Class of 2024

21CL Youth Ambassador Mission: The Youth Ambassadors’ mission is to serve as student ambassadors for 21st Century Leaders by upholding the organization’s mission and vision through servant-leadership while creating meaningful opportunities for Georgia’s next generation of youth leaders. The Youth Ambassadors strive to bring awareness to 21CL through a united voice, community service and outreach while enhancing our leadership and interpersonal skills. Our goal is to establish a strong foundation that cultivates future generations of leaders who can further expand our accomplishments.

Learn more about 21st Century Leaders at https://www.21stcenturyleaders.org/

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For media inquiries, please contact:
Nicole Meadows
Director of Programs & Communications, 21st Century Leaders
nicole@21stcenturyleaders.org | 404.373.7441

Alumni Spotlight: Jevan Huston

JevanHutsonToday’s action challenge in the #21Days of Leadership social media campaign is to highlight a past leader who has made a difference in your life and inspired you to become a leader.

Meet 21CL alum Jevan Hutson, whose inclusive leadership has made a major difference in his community and its members! He attended SYLI (formerly known as G5!) at Emory’s Goizueta Business School in 2011 and served on the 21CL Youth Executive Board (Youth Leadership Team) from 2011-2012.

In addition to inspiring his peers at 21CL programs, Jevan was the recipient of the 2011 Georgia Youth Leadership Awards for his leadership as the 2011-2012 school coordinator for Whitewater High School’s Pennies for Patients, which benefits The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Jevan was directly responsible for leading his peers at Whitewater to donate approximately $40,000 over two years, raising enough money to support an LLS-funded researcher for more than 9 months. Read more about current and past Georgia Youth Leadership Award winners here!
#21daysofLeadership #21CL #iamINSPIRED

How did participating in 21st Century Leaders change you and/or lead you to where you are now?

At such a critical juncture in becoming a future leader and citizen-scholar, 21CL granted me a deeper sense of self-value and a more robust confidence to assert and contest my opinions as well as to engage and collaborate with community and industry leaders.

How did 21CL prepare you for your next steps? Going into college and taking on leadership roles, heading into a new era of professionalism, etc. What tool and perspectives have helped you long the way?

First and foremost, 21CL provided me a unique platform for both conceptualizing and operationalizing my academic and professional goals, which was very much integral to my successful transition into undergraduate life at Cornell University. Reflecting back on my experiences in 21CL, particularly now as a Master’s student at Cornell and soon-to-be law student, I can safely say that the program’s focus on collaboration, relationship building and professional networking skills was key not only to my professional development — helping me garner numerous, prestigious internships (Research & Technology Intern at the Boeing Company) and research assistantships during my undergraduate tenure — but also to my successful career as a student leader and community advocate on campus.

What’s something you’ve recently learned about leadership?

Overall, my leadership and service to the Cornell community has taught me that true leadership is interdisciplinary and requires organization that is inclusive and nurturing of all stakeholders. I ground my own pursuit of public service and passion for equity in an ability to be highly self-aware and to engage a practice of conscious activism. I listen deeply to the communities I serve, so that I may center their needs ahead of my own presumptions and understandings. While my own tenacity, advocacy, and intellectual curiosity are valuable and unique, they do not exclude the incorporation of others’ skillsets and the necessity of coalition building. Through inclusive leadership and a recognition of the power of solidarity within the experience of injustice, I learned they are in fact an imperative toward that organization.

Jevan graduated in 2012 from Whitewater High School in Fayetteville, Georgia. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in History of Art (2016) from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he is now pursuing a Master’s Degree in Information Science and guides students as a Teaching Assistant in “Personal Relationships and Technology” and “Information Ethics, Law, and Policy.” #iamINSPIRED