"My first field job was with a community center in a small town. Part of my job was to work with the team to help plan activities for the youth participants. We went into the local school and talked to a group of middle school to high-school students. As this was our target age group, we wanted to include them in the conversation. We talked about their interests, fears, and insecurities. We asked them what we could do to help them over the summer to prepare for the transition into the next grade. Based on these conversations, we made a plan. This experience was a fantastic kick-start to learning how to plan engaging and age-appropriate activities. One of the best events we held was a community wide '24 hours of summer vacation' that began at 7 PM on a Friday and ended at 7 PM the following day. Each group of kids had a leader, and they had to navigate through fun tasks that took them around town, and I look forward to doing the same with your organization."

"I've created a book club where we read coming-of-age novels. At the end of each week, we'd discuss the book and our feelings while answering questions. We provided yoga classes and planned fun day trips. I once made arrangements with the local movie theatre to allow us to come between 1 AM and 3 AM to play video games on the big screens. Another time, we had daytime games in the park, and various local restaurants delivered food and beverages throughout the day. Some businesses put on an obstacle course, while others provided clues and snacks for the participants along the way. We had a city-wide scavenger hunt once. We ended the day with a BBQ for all the kids, parents, and volunteers, where we played traditional camp-style games in the park. We even arranged for local shops and restaurants to donate funds and products to support these highly immersive programs."