Author Spotlight
Hour 4 Journalism One
Written by Corinne Stratton
Hour 4 Journalism | The Harbinger Online Sophomore Lauren Brown was sitting in EHAP when Mr. Chaffee began writing on the board about the Youth Leadership Program of Central Europe. He told his students of this opportunity for a free trip to Europe. Lauren thought it sounded cool and little did she know four months later she would be apart of the twelve United States students accepted into the program out of hundreds of applicants.
Lauren will be spending four weeks of her summer with YLPCE where they will travel to Serbia and Hungary for two weeks. This opportunity will give Lauren a globalized perspective outside of her Prairie Village world.
After hearing in class about the basics of the organization, Lauren searched the program on her phone during lunch. Lauren saw it took place in Serbia and Hungry and was disappointed as she was picturing a trip to France or Spain. As she saw the goals of the organization, she became more intrigued. She proposed the idea to her mom and they discussed the pros and cons. Would Lauren be willing to take the time out of her summer? Would she follow through with all of her applications? Would it be worth it if she didn’t get it?
“I told my mom I thought it would be a really awesome experience and I have always wanted to do something like this,” Lauren said. “I have always been super jealous of the people that come back with these amazing stories.”
Lauren didn’t care where the trip went she just wanted to travel. Out of all the mission trip opportunities, Lauren felt this organization’s ideas were the best match for her. She liked how the program was leadership based and focused on skill building rather than just a trip. Lauren made up her mind and decided she would apply. After weeks of writing essays, telephone interviews, and telling friends of this opportunity, Lauren’s acceptance was highly anticipated by many.
“As with any news that you are getting, it’s always going to be nerve wracking, especially when they don’t tell you an exact date they are going to get back to you,” Lauren said. “I guess I was a little anxious about that because I didn’t know when I was going to get the news or how I was going to get the news.”
Although Lauren was informed they would hear the news in March, the end of the month was approaching and no decision had been sent out. March 26th began as a regular school day followed by the usual track practice, but somehow, Lauren felt it was the day. Strolling from the locker room to her car, Lauren decided to check her emails on her phone. As she rarely does this, she found it even harder to believe the email was really sitting in her inbox holding the long awaited decision. With anticipation building up, she read “Please see the attached form regarding our final decision”.
“I was just trying to open the additional attachment without dropping my phone,” Lauren said. “I didn’t even read anything in the second email besides the first thing that said ‘Congratulations blah blah blah’ and I just closed it out and called my mom.”
Lauren’s mom, Deb Brown, had been checking her daughter’s emails for her because she was just as excited as her daughter. Deb encouraged Lauren to apply because Lauren felt strongly that this was something she wanted to do. Her mom is excited for her to have a more positive perspective of things that happen in other countries.
“If you pick up a newspaper and look at things happening in other countries, typically we read negative things like ‘Bomb explodes in Tel Aviv, Israel’,” Deb said. “You don’t pick up a newspaper and read ‘20 teenagers did a community service project in Budapest’.”
Youth Leadership Program of Central Europe is offered through Meridian International and is sponsored by the United States Department of State. The program begins in the U.S. for two weeks of community service collaboration. The four Kansas City students plan a service project to solve a problem in their community such as teen homelessness or environmental awareness. They plan, fundraise and recruit for the project on their own in order to put the plan into action after they come back from Europe.
“One of the appeals of the program to me was it provides you with the means and the opportunity to come up with this project with people you probably wouldn’t have met before,” Lauren said. “It gives you these skills to make a plan and then its up to you to actually make it happen.”
After the two weeks of community service planning, the four Kansas City students will join eight students from Burlington, Vt. and Raleigh, N.C. in Belgrade, Serbia. These students will attend leadership workshops for team building, sightseeing, and global issue discussions while staying with a host family.
“I’m only used to living with one parent, so it would be so different not only living in a different country, but with a completely different family dynamic,” Lauren said. “I’m sure schooling is different over there so it’ll be cool hearing about my host family’s school compared to East.”
Excited about her new endeavor, Lauren wanted to contact the other students that were accepted. After friend requesting them all on Facebook, Lauren received responses from many of the North Carolina applicants. One girl talked with Lauren over Facebook to find out they had many things in common such as both playing soccer.
“She had read ‘In Cold Blood’ and always wondered what it was like to live in Kansas,” Lauren said. “She even asked me if I lived on a farm.”
With the responses of describing East and Prairie Village, the girl came to realize Lauren lived in a more urban place than her town in North Carolina.
Having never traveled over-seas and living in Prairie Village most of her life, Lauren wanted to experience a different culture and learn more about the world outside of her community. Lauren applied because she saw it as a good opportunity to gain more of an international viewpoint along with increasing her leadership skills.
“Not only take the Kansas girl and put her in a big city, but take the Kansas girl and put her in a big city in central Europe,” Lauren said. “I will be completely out of my comfort zone, but I love experiences like that because those are opportunities to learn and grow.”
Kristin Fry, Lauren’s English teacher, believes Lauren has all the right qualities going into the program that will allow her to learn a lot about leadership. Fry wrote one of Lauren’s recommendation letters for the program, for she often sees Lauren as a leader in the class. She understands not all students at this age have leadership experience so this will be a great opportunity for Lauren.
“[Lauren] seems to be a very responsible young lady and academically she has proven that she is responsible,” Fry said. “Socially, she always had a good rapport, was very positive, and had good relationships.”
Lauren is trying to be more excited than nervous about the trip. While her only expectations of the country have come from online pictures, she doesn’t want to freak out upon arrival about the different food, language, and customs. Deb, however, is nervous for Lauren’s safety, as she understands the cultural conflicts in Serbia’s past and present.
“I was nervous because it wasn’t like sending her to camp,” Deb said. “She would be in a different country and a not particularly stable country.”
Deb is more comfortable about Lauren’s safety because the program is through the United States Government. If anything dangerous in Serbia were to happen, she is confident the government would take care of them.
Lauren has always been interested in the idea of international relations. She understands there is not much difference in culture within her community so Lauren believes you can’t understand a country or it’s people if you haven’t been there and seen how they live.
“A Kansas girl can’t just say she wants to be involved in international relations unless she starts learning about other cultures and the world beyond Prairie Village,” Lauren said. “I think it’s a good ‘test-run’ to see if that’s something I’m actually interested in.”
From Lauren’s communication skills to her interest in languages, a future in international relations has just made sense. With diplomatic or FBI career options in mind, Lauren wants to further her knowledge of different cultures early on. Lauren sees the benefits of forming these international relationships in order to maintain the United States’ global power and good connections in the future.
“You get to interact with people from different walks of life and you get to communicate between them,” Lauren said. “You’re not only fostering understanding between different groups of people, but also reaping the benefits as a global power.”
Lauren is excited that YLPCE is based on building these relationships between other countries and widening student’s international perspectives as well. She is not only looking to benefit herself, but also to give back after this experience using the relationships they have built.
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