Our Newest Ambassador Intern

As we enter a new academic year, many high school graduates are starting a brand-new chapter in their education. They’re learning more about who they are as young adults while looking for experiences that will prepare them for the careers they want to pursue. Our newest Ambassador Intern, Kaitlyn Taylor, wants to learn as much as she can about facilitating youth programs.

A recent graduate of the Ambassadors, Kaitlyn knows firsthand the influence the program can have on the lives of its participants. She explained, “I gained a drive to do more for others and to be more helpful. Being around people who see your potential and try to help you achieve your goals helps you better understand who you want to be.”

Impacted by the Ambassadors as a high school student, she sought out the opportunity to become more involved in the Ambassadors program from the facilitation side. “I am most excited about making a positive impact and seeing growth in the Ambassadors,” Kaitlyn said. She’s also looking forward to bringing her own skills and talents to the program. “I want to help the Ambassadors to set realistic goals and see them through. I know it’s important to dream but if you don’t set goals that you can achieve, you will feel defeated.”

Kaitlyn not only wants to see growth in the high school coming into the program but also in herself. “One of my challenges is public speaking. I hope to become a better public speaker and communicator from this experience,” she said. These types of peer-to-peer teaching experiences have great benefits for both the peer doing the teaching and the peer being taught.

According to Saga Briggs, a contributor at InformED.com, “Research also indicates that peer learning activities typically yield the following results for both tutor and tutee: team-building spirit and more supportive relationships; greater psychological well-being, social competence, communication skills, and self-esteem; and higher achievement and greater productivity in terms of enhanced learning outcomes.”

For Kaitlyn, this experience gets her one step closer to her goal of opening a nonprofit focusing on educating African American children on civic engagement and leadership. And our goal at Operation Shoestring is to help her develop the tools she needs to succeed. Our duty is to provide our young people with opportunities to define their own destiny, discover their passions, and gain as much knowledge as possible from each experience.

Thank you for wanting to be part of this kind of work that creates opportunities for success for Kaitlyn, for the dozens of young people she’ll impact, and for the hundreds of young people and families in our community that they, in turn, will