Paula Orrego has an uplifting, positive attitude even when dealing with challenging topics.

Paula Orrego was a YEA Camper all the way back in 2011, but it’s kind of like she never left! Paula became a counselor in training (CIT) the next summer, when she turned 18, and she has stayed in touch with us ever since. She’s also been doing activism ever since! Paula even blogged for us about attending her first ever march and gave YEA Camp credit for her “a ha moment” in becoming an activist! She is even coming to our first ever YEA Camp for Adults session this summer!

We appreciate that Paula took time to share her story with us, and are glad to share more about her with you.

YEA Camp: Hi Paula! Tell us about the activism you’ve been doing.

Paula: Right now, I’m working as a college ambassador for Give More HUGS, a non-profit organization that aims to give quality education to every child, regardless of their socio-economic status. I am currently working on a city-wide musical instrument drive to collect used instruments and send them to Hope for Relief Organization in Malawi; they will be opening a youth music center soon and are in need of musical instruments for their students. I have also been in contact with another community organization that needs instruments for their children, so if this drive goes well, I hope to start another one for that organization. Music has always been something I have been passionate about, and I want more people to see the value of it. Besides the drive, I have also been guest-writing for different blogs about anti-bullying (another subject I am passionate about) and how to become an activist.

YEA: How did you get involved with activism and what you’re currently working on?

Paula sporting her YEA Camp “This is what an activist looks like” t-shirt at a Pride rally.

PO: I became an activist because of the severe bullying problem at my old middle and high school. Besides being a survivor myself of bullying, I was also hearing my friends’ stories of how they were being bullied. When I had reported the incidences of bullying, the administration either denied the severity of the problem, invalidated my feelings, took actions that ended up making the bullying worse, or suggested I leave the school if I couldn’t handle it.

(Shoutout to the few teachers who did believe me and had my back!)

I wanted to make people see the problem–really see it–and not just sweep it under the rug. However, I had been put down so often that I didn’t know what to do to make people listen to me. I was honestly starting to give up, and I just hoped I could get through my senior year under the radar.

The summer before my senior year, I got an email from my school about different jobs and internships available to us in the community that would look great on our college applications. At the very bottom, almost as an aside, there was one sentence about a week-long activist camp for teens called YEA Camp. I figured this would be my only chance to find out what I can do about this problem; at the very least, this camp would be a fun getaway, and I would make some new friends.

Clearly, the camp experience lasted longer than a week! The staff empowered me so much that I didn’t just fly under the radar my senior year; I stood up for what I believed in and ended up giving my senior speech to my entire high school (with faculty and administration included) about bullying.

Fast forward to now, and I actually got in touch with Give More HUGS through YEA Camp! Somebody knew the founder of the organization and shared their openings for high school and college ambassadors to the YEA Camp alumni social media page. I have always wanted to do something with music, since I have been passionate about music since I was a child, and I wanted to spread the joy of music to more children. And the rest is history!

Paula attending her first march, at the Women’s March in San Jose, CA.

YEA: That’s amazing! What challenges have you faced as an activist and how have you dealt with them?

PO: I have definitely made many people unhappy by sharing my not-so-positive story about being bullied at my old school, even though I never say the school’s name. I remember how one girl, after I graduated, created an anonymous Youtube account just to send me a long message of how current students at the school were finding out about my sharing my story and how I should be grateful that I had attended that school, because it was a privilege to go there.

I am a natural people-pleaser, but it’s experiences like this that have taught me that I can’t make everybody happy, and that’s okay. People will always think they know everything about you, but they don’t. I’m always honest about my experiences and feelings, but I have never shared my full story publicly, just because there are some things I don’t like talking about or remembering. People like that girl don’t really know me or my whole story, so I remind myself that their judgments shouldn’t matter to me.

I built a bulletproof armor around me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t stand up for myself. I ended up sending back a message and never hearing from her again.

YEA: Wow. What advice do you have for new activists just getting involved?

PO: If you are getting involved in activism because of something you have experienced first-hand, I’d say go for it, but don’t do it out of revenge. You might end up saying things you regret later. Keep people and places anonymous–you are trying to make a point about the greater problem, not trying to punish the individuals.

When you’re a passionate activist, whatever your cause may be, you are always going to find people who don’t agree with you. What’s important is that you don’t let them affect you personally. Don’t let them silence you.

YEA: How did YEA Camp help you in your activism, if it did?

PO: YEA Camp taught me so much, but the staff especially helped me feel more confident about myself. I would have never talked to all the class deans about bullying and written my senior speech about bullying if it weren’t for their support.

YEA: Are there any other organizations you’ve worked with or that have been valuable resources in your activism?

PO: Working with Give More HUGS this past year and MoveOn.org last summer has taught me so many activist skills. They’ve taught me how to network, organize with teams, and just break out of my shell even more. The classes I have taken at my university, Palo Alto University, have also taught me how to be a critical thinker in my activist research. YEA Camp set up the foundation for my activism, but Give More HUGS, MoveOn, and PAU have definitely helped build on top of that.

Paula Orrego is a junior at Palo Alto University, working towards her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Social Action. Paula is a social justice and political activist who has primarily focused on anti-bullying since high school, but she has also worked on other issues such as women’s rights, animal rights, and the environment.

If you are as passionate about making a difference as Paula is, you should come to YEA Camp for teens or to our session for adults! Or, if you want to learn how to get active right away, download our new ebook, The Beginner’s Guide to Changing the World.

The post YEA Camper Activist Spotlight: Paula Orrego’s Activism Journey appeared first on YEA Camp.

YEA Camper Raven was one of so many YEA Campers around the country who walked out of school or attended the March for Our Lives.

Like much of the country, we’ve been so inspired by the activism spearheaded by youth advocating for gun control since the tragic Parkland shooting.

We were less surprised than most, though, because we see the activism young people do every day and their passion and ability to make a difference on the causes they care about.

Sparked by the catalysts of youth activists Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and other young leaders from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students across the nation have been speaking out and walking out.

Our campers participated in school walkouts and the March for Our Lives all across the country, and the recent protests in Sacramento to protest the horrific police killing of Stephon Clark.

13-year-old YEA Camper Mal being interviewed in Sacramento at protests of the police killing of Stephon Clark.

We often say that activism is something that ideally we would never have to do — because it would mean that our world is running fairly and systems are in place to address issues that arise.

But clearly that is not the case.

Young people are inheriting a country where they see friends being shot in school, where there is daily risk of violence in their communities, and where police — those who are sworn to protect and serve — pose a terrifying risk.

And so they are doing activism. We are seeing the courage of young people speaking up in spite their fears, their homework, their inexperience, and every other reason people use to justify inaction. They’re organizing and attending protests, walking out of school, registering voters, contacting legislators, speaking to media, making signs, giving speeches, pressuring legislators, and using social media to keep this issue in the center of public debate. We’ve already seen companies change their policies, pull their advertising, and end corporate partnerships with the NRA as a result of this pressure.

We were so proud and honored to get this message from YEA Camper Hani, who attended camp 4 summers ago when she was 14.

One of the biggest things we prioritize at YEA Camp is helping our campers feel proud of what they care about, and to put aside fears of other people’s opinions while taking action to make a difference. There are so many aspects to helping people feel empowered to speak up, many of them very subtle.

YEA Camp’s entire curriculum is focused on developing knowledge, skills, confidence, and community —  all of which build upon one another and lead people to fully express their passions in ways that are effective and sustainable.

We know that our campers — and certainly the incredible youth of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the students across the country who’ve been walking out and marching — don’t need YEA Camp to get out and do these things, but we know we do all we can to help.

If you could use some help taking your activism (on guns or any other issue of importance to you) to the next level, or even just want to be part of an inspiring community of advocates as passionate as you are, join us at YEA Camp! We have sessions for youth ages 12-17 and a new session for adults.

The post YEA Campers Speaking Out and Walking Out Against Gun Violence appeared first on YEA Camp.

That’s our standard, incredible experience every summer, so it’s sometimes more fun to highlight the more rare or unique developments at each new summer of YEA Camp. As we already begin to prepare for next summer, here are a few of our favorite accomplishments from summer 2017.

1. Camper-Made Videos to Share the Unique Experience of YEA Camp
   This summer several campers came to YEA Camp prepared to document their experience on social media, while others got inspired to do so. So, before we further attempt the challenge of sharing about our YEA Camp summer, we’re going to let YEA Camper Noor Aldayeh do it for us in this video.

You can also check out videos by campers Emma and Natalie, as well as this awesome short video (including footage taken with drones!) by the fine folks at V for Veganism, who visited us at camp to learn more about and share our work. We were also thrilled to have a professional film crew with us all week at our California camp documenting our experience for a longer-term project they are working on. We’ll keep you posted on that!

2. More Former Campers On Staff Than Ever Before
This was our NINTH year of YEA Camp, which means that we now have a lot of campers who have gone through our program and are old enough to be on staff. We usually have a few former campers as counselors in training (CITs) each summer, but this year we had 7, many of whom have been standouts in our organization for years, having been on our Youth Advisory Board or been to multiple sessions of YEA Camp. It was an incredible experience to see these young leaders, some of whom we first met when they were 12 or 13, and whom we’ve stayed in close contact with over the years, now on staff training future YEA Campers.They’re all grown up! One of them, Andrew Puccetti, even wrote this awesome article for VegNews magazine about what he learned from his experience.

3. More Diversity and Scholarships Than Ever Before

These “appreciation posters” start off blank but by the end of camp are filled with nice notes campers and staff have written to one another.

It’s always important to us that YEA Camp participants represent a wide diversity of ethnicities, socioeconomic status, interests, geographic areas, and life experiences, which we can help facilitate through expanding our outreach as well as offering financial aid.

This year we had more campers than ever before, over 100 young leaders now better equipped to make a difference in their communities. We had more campers than ever before paying the full price — which, along with donations from our very generous supporters, provides funds for our financial aid — and, conversely, more on full or very significant scholarship.

This year, 13% of YEA Campers received a full scholarship, with another 14% paying less than 25% of our standard tuition cost.

We had campers from as far away as Australia, China, and across the US, campers from indigenous communities including one camper who led a workshop teaching Aztec dance and 2 staff who went to Standing Rock, campers who are first-generation Americans including those with families from Somalia and Mexico, campers who are Muslim and wore head scarves, campers who identify as trans or are considering their gender identity, and campers passionate about many different social issues from climate change to healthy relationships, police brutality to animal cruelty, LGBTQ equality to gun control, reproductive rights to eating disorders, and much more.

So many of these young people shared that because of — not in spite of — this diversity, they felt accepted and inspired by their experience meeting fellow activist-minded youth and staff.

4. More Returning Staff and Staff at Multiple Sessions Than Ever Before

We have such outstanding staff members at YEA Camp, and when we can have returning staff members and staff members working at multiple sessions, it makes everything run smoother and builds on past experience. We were thrilled to be able to retain such outstanding staff, and of our 31 staff members this summer, 18 of them had attended at least one previous YEA Camp, and 5 staff attended all 3 sessions that we held this summer!

5. Stronger Post-Camp Communication and Support

Thanks to technology and our campers’ own innovation and commitment, this year campers have chosen to use new tech platforms to stay in touch with everyone from camp, to share activist accomplishments, ask for help, and reach out when they miss one another or need support. Using Discord and GroupMe, YEA Campers and staff have sent each other thousands of group messages to provide ongoing connection in the time since camp ended.

Our monthly all-camp support video calls have also been a great success. With more than 20 campers or staff on our calls, campers have been able to ask and answer one another’s questions regarding fundraising tips, their school clubs, what to say to “haters,” juggling activism with their busy schedules, and much more.

This summer was a huge success and inspiration for us to keep expanding our programs to support activists in making our world a better place.

This was also the first summer of YEA Camp where we had a president that was universally hated by campers and staff, and the current political and accompanying social climate and divisiveness make YEA Camp even more needed.

We are thrilled to have some big things in the works for YEA Camp 2018, which we will be sharing very soon.

Until then, we are so grateful for all of our campers, parents, staff, volunteers, and donors for enabling YEA Camp to continue our programs to empower people to do activism and bring about a better world.

The post Another Amazing YEA Camp Summer Brings Inspiration and Firsts appeared first on YEA Camp.

Read even more testimonials from campers, parents, staff, and community leaders about YEA Camp, and then register here to join us for camp this summer or to apply as a staff member.

The post What Difference Does YEA Camp Make? Take a Look! appeared first on YEA Camp.