Youth Leadership Exchange …. From the Beginning

By Mary Walsh (and special contributors Debby Hampton, Marnie Taylor, Beth Short, Debi Martin and Wayland Cubit)

Almost from its inception, Leadership Oklahoma City class members, board members and presenters saw a natural progression of the organization would be to offer a youth program.  Before those visions were fully realized, however, major events occurred on a local and national level and major changes affected Leadership Oklahoma City, all of which had a profound effect on the evolution of Youth Leadership Exchange you see today.  Here’s how.  Here’s why.

Debby Hampton:  I remember a long phone conversation Adonna Meyer and I had about a youth enrichment program focusing on Oklahoma City and leadership.  As recent graduates, Adonna and I had both been influenced by those messages through Leadership Oklahoma City.   Additionally, I was volunteer coordinator at the American Red Cross in Oklahoma City, where appreciable emphasis was placed on youth:  swim lessons, babysitting courses and such.  Red Cross board members who also had been in LOKC had talked about youth involvement for years.  So, I pitched Sue Ann Hyde, our board chair, and Tim Sartorius, our Executive Director on the idea.  They were both only mildly encouraging, finally telling me if I could find the funding, we would give it a whirl.  My personal goals were to find the funding and be the program director of the course.  We realized the funding thanks to Love’s Travels Stops and Country Stops, but I only batted .500 in achieving my goals, which saddens me to this day.     Along with Marnie Taylor, hired by the Red Cross to be program director, we gathered a truly, stellar group to shape the plan. 

Marnie Taylor:  The Steering Committee and later the Red Cross-related YLX board we assembled was truly instrumental in the whole enterprise.  And remarkably few if any of them refused me when I asked for help. 

Some of our challenges:  The Red Cross served all of Oklahoma County, so our required mission was to bring together individuals who, as much as possible, had familiarity with each of the 52 area high schools in the mix.  I only had small children at the time, so the learning curve necessary to convince high school administrations to excuse students for one day a month was no small deal.  However, mentioning our affiliation with the Red Cross usually brought officials around. 

Higher ups in the schools, of course, expected us to admit their stars. However, Adonna Meyer in her wisdom, had suggested we divide class members into roughly three parts:  1/3 proven leaders (student council presidents, for example), 1/3 potential leaders (students with big promise but few actual accomplishments), and 1/3 non-traditional students (those who had never had many opportunities to lead).  Requiring students with these different profiles, coupled with our policy of selecting a maximum of two from every school, made it impossible for schools to pack the program with only their best and brightest. 

As you can appreciate, leveling the class’s playing field was of great importance to us.  Consequently, we provided each class member with an identical polo shirt to wear at every meeting.  We also arranged mentor/drivers for all, so no one cruised up in an ultra-flashy car. 

And, looking back, all this worked like a charm.  For example, two young women, one from an evangelical high school, and one from a Muslim school sat together the first day and exchanged information on their diverse worlds.  Small groups usually included class members from schools with thousands of students and those who would have 67 in their graduation class.  99% of the time, they found it easy and interesting to work together.  In fact, through the years, one of the most frequent student comments has continued to be, “I loved YLX because I met, became friends and worked with so many people I would never have known.”

After a year of research, attending a conference of leadership leaders and talking with different programs nationwide, Adonna and I settled on a curriculum that blended Oklahoma City information/talks with local leaders/tours with leadership skills.  For example, on Rights and Responsibilities Day, we toured the Police & Fire training center, heard the Chief of Police and the Fire Chief speak, and then we staged a mock trial with class members, directed by local attorneys, playing all the parts, including the jury.

(Side Note:  We had to name the program.  All of us liked Youth Leadership Exchange, but we were less then excited with YLE.  Board member, the late Mac Troy, suggested that the letter “X” was a “cool” letter and seemed to resonate with youth, so YLX it was.)

Debby Hampton:  In the fall of 1995, we assembled our first class.  As you’ll remember, Oklahoma City had gone through the Murrah Building bombing that spring, so Red Cross resources were, and continued to be, stretched to the max.   We soldiered on for another year and then had to face certain realities.  Fundamentally the Red Cross was and is a disaster response organization.  As we continued to respond to the Murrah Building bombing issues, we recognized if any other disaster should occur in central Oklahoma (such as the May 3, 1999, tornado in Bridge Creek and Moore actually did) attention to YLX would be, of necessity, significantly reduced. 

Rather quickly, we recognized Beth Shortt, who was chair of the Red Cross/YLX board, was also executive director of Leadership Oklahoma City, and the late Zach Taylor, a person always interested in the welfare of youth, was chair of the Leadership Oklahoma City board.  Almost as quickly, a sort of transfer of power was agreed upon and Youth Leadership Exchange became a program of Leadership Oklahoma City in 1997.

I remember being somewhat sad to see YLX leave the Red Cross.  But I must acknowledge if the program had stayed put it would still be just one offering, rather than the impressive expansion we see today. 

Beth Shortt: The YLX classes of 1997-98 and 1998-99 proceeded uneventfully, which was a good thing, allowing us to get a solid footing with the youth, as well as our volunteers.  Then suddenly we experienced a period of rapid change in almost every regard.  Linda Wegener came into replace, Marnie Taylor, who wanted to become a full-time mom.  And soon after, Linda went on to different pursuits, and in came empty nester, Mary Walsh.  Like her predecessors, she was hired as a part time employee…but that didn’t last for long.

Program-wise, in the class year 2001-2002 we added two new programs, through a grant from Lucent Technologies, and a partnership with the City of Oklahoma City. 

First, the Oklahoma City branch of Lucent notified us they had reconsidered our previously refused grant request and wanted to help fund another YLX program.  Dubbed Youth in Action, its aim was to give our students the necessary skills to work with dissimilar groups to achieve a common goal.  We designed sessions on brainstorming, categorizing, narrowing, evaluating, site visits, and voting, all to be practiced in small groups of people they didn’t know. 

The work to this point was constructed to identify a community issue the group agreed to address, and then to choose to support a local non-profit working in this area.  What followed was training in how to craft a fundraising pitch and then how to make a call and raise the money.  The fundraising was to be secondary, but it didn’t work out exactly that way.  Through the years, our groups have been quite successful. 

Youth in Action has raised over $300,000 and has helped over 30 nonprofits through the years including Freedom School OKC, Positive Tomorrows, Variety Care, F.A.C.T., Smart Start of Central Oklahoma, Northcare and St. Anthony’s Foundation, Youth and Family Services, Teen Recovery Solutions, Mental Health Association, Oklahoma Lawyers for Children, Youth Services for Oklahoma County, Project Transformation, Boys and Girls Club, Calm Waters, Positive Tomorrows, The CARE Center, and many more.

Headed by founder, Lt. Wayland Cubit, FACT, an acronym for Family Awareness and Community Teamwork, is a gang prevention program of OCPD, targeting youth ages 10-17.  Of his association with Youth in Action, Cubit says: “Learning to work as a group to make a positive difference is so important really to all of us.  At FACT, we were so impressed with this process, we have added it to our programming.  Today my students are applying these same lessons in their lives.”

Editor’s note:  Lt. Cubit has since joined the YLX board as a program co-chair, and then was named chairman of our board.

Debi Martin, Chief of Staff for the City Council of Oklahoma City:   Early in 2000, two council members, Jerry Foshee and Willa Johnson attended a National League of Cities, where they noticed a number of high schoolers in attendance.  Upon learning the teens were members of youth councils from throughout the United States, they determined to pursue having a council here in Oklahoma City. 

Through in-depth research as well as meetings with individual council members and the mayor, we determined the Youth Council would be a program of the City of Oklahoma City, which would provide total direct and in-kind budget.  Oklahoma City would contract with Leadership Oklahoma City for administrative services.  As Chief of Staff for the City, I would manage the program content with assistance from Program Co-Chairs who might or might not be former LOKC alums.

Further, we agreed the youth council would be composed of eighteen students (two high schoolers from each of our eight wards and two to work at-large with the mayor) who were recommended to Council and the Mayor by me in consultation with Youth Leadership Exchange.   Once these recommendations were approved, they were officially appointed by Mayor and Council. 

So, this contract between the City of Oklahoma City and Leadership Oklahoma City was set to be approved on the agenda.  At 8:30 am on September 11, 2001.

As the meeting was called to order, it appeared the contract might not be approved unanimously.  The meeting was recessed several times so those in attendance could be updated on the crisis unfolding in New York City.  In the end, all contracts presented that day were approved without discussion, one at a time, and after a prayer, the meeting was adjourned.

Since its inception, the Youth Council agendas resembled backstage passes to each of the city’s eight wards every year.  In addition, student councilors have offered their opinions on skate park regulations, naming of the new Scissortail Park, expansion of our number of wards, potential MAPS projects, as well as recent robust discussions of mask regulations. 

Strong emphasis has been placed on encouraging program graduates to remain in Oklahoma after high school graduation or to return after college graduation.  In fact, one of these alums turned down a scholarship to MIT, and attended OU.  He is now involved in microbiological engineering at the Health Sciences Center.  We also have grads who have made presentations to Council related to their professions, and who serve on City boards and commissions, one of whom chairs that commission.

Two other anecdotes that testify to the impact of Youth Council:  Two of our graduates took a high school graduation trip to New York City.  One of the first stops they made was to the City’s city hall.  Also, one of our alums emigrated to Israel after college graduation, and soon after was an unsuccessful candidate for city council in Tel Aviv, on the platform that she was an immigrant, qualified to represent other such residents of the city.

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In 2020, Youth Leadership Exchange marked its 25th year of serving youth in Oklahoma County.  More than 2200 alumni who hail from 52 Oklahoma City area high schools have joined us in the work of making our city a better place to live, work and raise their families.  We are proud to call them members of the YLX family.