Career:
Department of Education of PuertoRico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
FCCLA Advisor
Manage all FCCLA related topics in Puerto Rico .
NOYS Meetings attended, and memories of those events:
My first experience with NOYS was great! I represented Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) as their National Vice President of Peer Education and Representative at NOYS Meetings. I was very nervous because I had to give a presentation at the 2003 National Childhood Safety Convention in Los Angeles , California about how FCCLA & NOYS targeted some of the problems specially related to this sector in society. I felt I knew very little but as soon as I meet Erin Meluso and the NOYS youth they all made me feel a part of the family right away and showed me the amazing similarities and activities that they made as an organization to target the same issues that we in FCCLA did. All I can say is that together as a team we made one of the most memorable presentations of the Convention and from then on they had me!
Describe why youth safety and health is important to you:
Youth safety is important to me because youth are the seed of the future of our society. Youth creating a safer environment will both create conscience of the importance of taking care of the community problems and will show society how much leadership and power of change has for our future generations.
Youth health is important for me because I think it’s a topic that is critically affecting their lives and it’s one of the topics that is less targeted in society in general.
What are you doing now to address youth safety and health concerns?
Right know I am working with both FCCLA’ s National Programs & NOYS programs to target areas such as traffic safety issues, violence prevention, family relationships, healthy eating, and tobacco usage prevention. To address this problem I have also joined forces with Puerto Rico ’s Association of Teachers and some other government agencies.
What was college peer pressure like?
For me this was the time when I and many of my friends were back into the starting over phase: new friends, new groups and maybe a new personality adjustment. For the first time I felt very independent and with so much time on my hands without anyone to tell me what to do, this is where peer pressure came right in. With time and many personal experiences gained I learned that with independence comes much responsibility and we need to have the sufficient maturity and confidence in our selves to say no when we think we have to, without letting peer pressure control our lives.
Lessons learned and advice for current NOYS youth:
- Take advantage of all the great experiences that NOYS offers, they will help you both in your personal and professional life.
- Keep in contact with the NOYS youth, they are great friends and are a great resource of leaders working on the same issues you maybe working on too.
- Take the time to talk to the NOYS adults they are awesome!
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