Do you know someone who is making a positive impact in the community? Nominate them for a ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Award (YODA)!
The ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards are non-academic and consist of 6 categories and 7 awards: Volunteerism, Advocacy, Environmentalism: Individual and Group, Peer Support, Perseverance and Leadership.
Advocate Award (Formerly the Activist Award): To be given to a youth who has committed time and energy lending their voice to a cause and bringing about change. To win this award, the nominee has demonstrated passion and conviction.
Environmentalist Awards: To be given to a youth and a group of youth who are committed to improving the environment and reducing environmental degradation. The nominee(s) will have achieved results and made the world a little ‘greener’.
Leadership Award
To be given to a youth who has chosen to take a leadership role in bringing positive change to their school or community. The nominee will have demonstrated responsibility and drive, as well as initiative in starting new projects and programs.
Peer Support Award: To be given to a youth who is a true mentor. This youth will have positively affected the life, or lives of others. The nominee will have shown empathy and compassion while lending their support.
Perseverance Award: To be given to a youth who has prevailed over adversity or an obstacle in their life. The nominee will have overcome challenges and demonstrated inner strength and perseverance.
Volunteerism Award
To be given to a youth who is truly selfless and dedicated to helping others. Though not necessarily in a leadership role, the nominee has shown commitment to bettering their community by volunteering their time to a cause they are passionate about.
Let me back up… I first heard of the ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards and Youth Central when I was nominated for the Environmentalist Award in 2008, where I was a top three finalist. The winning nomination in my category was the ecology club at my current high school, which I have been extremely dedicated to for the past two years—funny coincidence! After the ceremony, Andrew Phung (the Program Director at Youth Central) invited me to be a member of the 2009 YODA steering committee, and I must say that it has been an incredibly rewarding experience.
The YODA steering committee consists of about 20 youth aged 14 to 18, who meet twice a month under the direction of Jennifer Hilliker (the YODA Program Coordinator at Youth Central). At our meetings, we discuss ways to make the awards ceremony as amazing as the youth we will be honouring. This year, we have two subcommittees: Promotions, who are in charge of advertisements and coming up with original ways of getting the word out (such as our YouTube video), and Ceremony, which is in charge of the MC, entertainment, and of course, the ceremony; each is lead by two of the four co-chairs. As a member of the Ceremony subcommittee, I have taken on the task of recruiting the MC, which will hopefully be the Lord Beaverbrook Improv Team. Closer to the date of the ceremony, we begin going through all of the nominations. I must say that this is one of the most difficult, stressful and exciting things that I have ever done. We sit down in groups and read over every single one of the nominations that gets sent in. With well over a hundred amazing applicants, narrowing them down to three for each of the seven awards is a crazy task. The things that these youth have created, overcome and achieved is so inspiring, and being able to meet them at the ceremony and congratulate them for what they have done is such a great feeling. Being part of YODA for the past three years has been such a great experience, and I am really going to miss it next year.
The award winners will be honoured at a gala ceremony on May 7, 2011 at the Calgary Zoo. Nominations are being accepted until March 4, 2011. For more information about the ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards, please call Youth Central at 403-266-5448 or visit www.youthcentral.com/yoda.