Yasamine S. Brown: Youth of the Year 2019
Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland (BGCO) is excited to introduce our 2019 Youth of the Year, Yasamine. Yasamine has earned the prestigious award for an unprecedented two consecutive years. She first joined the Club as a freshman in high school. Since then, she’s been a consistent presence at the Club tutoring, mentoring and leading her fellow peers by example.
Yasamine practiced those same leadership skills as Class President at her High School. She volunteered to tutor freshman students and is a strong advocate for substance free and healthy living. Now a high school graduate, Yasamine maintained a 3.05 GPA and was excited to graduate with her class in spring, 2019. She is now a freshman at San Jose State University where she is pursuing a Political Science degree. She aspires to a career as a lawyer.
Just as in school, Yasamine has achieved incredible things within her community. She displays incredible passion toward issues affecting her fellow Oakland youth, and for homelessness in the Bay Area. As a member of the “Homes for the Homeless Club” she has dedicated numerous hours to raising funds for those who are displaced. Additionally, she takes every opportunity she can to volunteer at food banks and shelters helping to serve food to those in need.
“Volunteering at the Club has helped me imagine where I want to be in the future and how I will bring my passions with me to college and beyond.”
The many hardships and obstacles Yasamine has faced growing up have shaped her passion and dedication for helping others. As the oldest sibling in a working household, Yasamine learned about
responsibility at a very early age having been tasked with caring for her younger siblings and her grandmother. However, Yasamine believes that one of her biggest challenges has been racial discrimination and a variety of social inequities that she has faced growing up. Similar to last year, Yasamine hopes to utilize her Youth of the Year platform to bring awareness to these issues.
Yasamine believes that BGCO has also helped shape who she is today. She states that “volunteering at the Club has helped me realize that I want to help by giving back to my community.” The Club has helped provide Yasamine with a safe and positive place where she has developed and blossomed into the remarkable individual that she is today. For that reason, Yasamine believes that “volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club has changed my life.”
Please join us in congratulating Yasamine for her remarkable achievements including the earning of this most prestigious honor as Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland’s outstanding 2019 Youth of the Year.
“Yasamine is an absolute team member.” “She values respect courage and making a change.”
“Yasamine’s ability to speak on topics affecting our youth is absolutely phenomenal. She possesses the self-motivation to successfully create and execute events that will lead to positivity amongst issues that are being ignored.”
The Youth of the Year program celebrates 14 to 18 year-old student-members’ outstanding contributions to their family, school, community, and their Boys & Girls Club; recognizing their academic excellence, moral character, life goals, poise and public speaking, as well as personal challenges and obstacles they’ve overcome. Historically, Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s five regional winners have been honored at a Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill and have a chance to meet the President of the United States in the White House each fall. State winners each receive a $1,000 college scholarship; Regional winners each receive an engraved plaque and, $10,000 college scholarship and compete on the national level; and the National Youth of the Year receives an additional $50,000 college scholarship and is installed by the President of the United States.