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Making a Difference: Oakdale Teens Get Recognized

Students from District 622's Youth Leadership Council were awarded for their commitment to helping the community.

On Tuesday, June 12, seven District 622 students were recognized at the Red Wagon Awards, an event sponsored by Minnesota Alliance with Youth and held at the Gov. Mark Dayton's residence in St. Paul.

Four of the seven students were from Tartan High School and also a part of the district’s Youth Leadership Council—a student advisory group for community education programs. Three students were from North High School.

“Different groups from across Minnesota are nominated for this award,” Angelica Torralba-Olague, District 622’s youth development coordinator, said. “The Youth Leadership Council received the award because they provide leadership in the community and found ways to improve academic achievement.”

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The Youth Leadership Council, also known as YLC, is a District 622 program that provides students with opportunities to learn about leadership and get involved in the community.

Each year, YLC focuses on an issue in the community. Last year, the 12 council members chose to learn about the achievement gap—a topic that many of the students had heard of, but didn’t fully understand.

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The three-part project was named “SWAG,” an acronym for Students Working on the Achievement Gap.

Members of YLC developed a peer workshop where they educated other high school students through hands-on activities about the achievement gap.

"High school students got a lot out of the workshop," Torralba-Olague said. "We had a lot of students say that it motivated them to do better in school."

The council also recruited 40 high school students from North, Tartan and Mahtomedi high schools to participate in a reading mentorship program.Each week, students mentored children from Oakdale and Richardson Elementary Schools.

"My most memorable [YLC] memory was being with my mentee," Tartan High School student Heven Woledi said. "She had a huge impact on me"

At the end of the year, YLC members created a video campaign about the achievement gap that was shown to teachers and the school board.

“The project was really well received,” Torralba-Olague said. “The last two years the council focused on a service project, but this year, their project was unique.”

The highlight of the council’s project came last April when the students presented their work to Nobel Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi at the National Service-Learning Conference in Minneapolis.

“If you’re a YLC student, you are definitely passionate and driven to learn about community issues,” Torralba-Olague said, “and you want to do something about it.”

More than learning about community issues, YLC students were excited to make a difference through this year’s project.

“I know I am making a change in my community,” Zang Her, a sophomore at Tartan High School and YLC member, said. “Even if we are a small group."

Woledi shared Her’s feelings. “[We are] an important group because we do so much for our community,” Woledi said. “We can make a difference, even as young people.”

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