2005 Youth Conference

Asian Media Access (AMA) together with the youth group “What About Us?” hosted its 2005 Pan Asian Youth Healthy Lifestyle Conference last weekend from Nov. 11 – 13.

The Conference was planned and hosted mostly by the youth from the “What About Us?” youth group with the guidance of AMA’s staff.

The Conference kicked off Friday with an opening night banquet at the Jackson Room of St. Paul Travelers. Over 80 people attended the banquet. At the banquet, youth presented the history of the “What About Us?” youth group, the project they have been doing, and how their participation in community service learning projects impacted them. They also presented appreciation award to representative from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. They also introduced the Multi-Media Arts Complex project to the participants. The banquet was hosted entirely by the youth.

Following the banquet was a two-day Healthy Lifestyle Conference at the Radisson City Center Hotel in downtown St. Paul. Over 50 youth from the Twin Cities and Duluth areas attended the Conference.

At the Conference, youth learned a variety of topics through workshops on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including teen pregnancy prevention, gender inequality issues, healthy relationship, depression prevention and substance abuse prevention among others. These workshops were designed to empower youth to stay away from risky behaviors and achieve a healthier lifestyle.

The youth also worked together in their own individual groups for a final presentation at the end of the Conference. They learned communication, presentation as well as leadership skills.

Over 20 mentors from different professional backgrounds were invited to speak with the youth in large group session as well as in small group setting of one mentor with 2 to 3 participants per group. The mentors discussed their professional successes and challenges and provided inspiration to the youth.

Included in the Conference was also a fun youth fashion and talent show for the youth to showcase their talents. All the Conference workshops were facilitated by the youth from “What About Us?”.

The Conference was successfully concluded on Sunday, November 13.