ports Chicago area kids, but celebrates them. This year, two student members
of Humble Parks Burrito Club are receiving special honors
for showing academic excellence, leadership
and service. Here with us this morning are two Aliyah
Sorrells, 2024 Youth of the Year,
and Talia Johnson, the 20 to 2024 excuse me, Junior
Youth of the Year. And they're joined by Jeremy Murphy, the Burrito Club's
senior director and a former Boys and Girls Club
member himself. Good morning. Thanks for being with us. S
o to Olia and to Leah
OC for everyone at home who's wondering both
beautiful names and different, Jeremy, understand
that you are a former Youth of the Year
winner yourself, so your roots go deep into the Boys and Girls
Club. Kind of
tell me about how it's impacted your life
and kind of your perspective now looking on to like
next generation of leaders. Yes, indeed. So first and foremost,
both of these young ladies are amazing youth. And I think for me,
being on this side now of Youth of the Yea
r
competition, I mean, I think is definitely
fulfilling, right. Just being the 27
youth of the year. I think some of the things
that this program within the Junior League
Boys and Girls Club has made to do for me
is it's honestly helped me instill so much confidence,
right, Like when it comes to public
speaking. Right. And also just being able to put
that into these young people. I would say from a National Boys
and Girls Club point of view, the Youth of the Year
program has been a program for m
aybe 1947. So just being able
to just understand that this program as a whole
really focuses on three major pillars, right? Academic
excellence, right, healthy, healthy lifestyles, and as well
as just being great leaders. So when you think
about this program from a national point of view,
I think these young ladies. Right,
you know, just based on them being pillars in the community
from the Barretto Boys and Girls Club as well as from Union League,
I mean, they both of them fit fit the bill.
I m
ean, like no other. So it's definitely
in an amazing opportunity to actually be here
and to be their their mentor. And how are they chosen?
Are they nominated? Do they nominate themselves? Kind of how does the selection
process work? Yeah. So in regards to being chosen,
you know, you have to go through a list
of community partners, right? You have to go through
a list of boys and youth club staff, right. Understanding within the Junior
League Boys and Girls Club, they are two of 15,000 young
peo
ple in the city of Chicago. So basically within them
being selected, everybody based on the staff,
based on community is based on some of the board members. They all come in one room and basically select
the best candidates. I love that. So to Ali,
I'll start with you first. Your 12 grader and Noble
Goldberg College Prep, when you heard that
you received this honor, kind of tell me how it made you feel
and what your future goals are now that, you know,
like your community believes in you just as
much as effort
that you've put into just who you are
and where you're going? Um, I was really excited
at first, if I'm being honest. I kind of do
want to do it afterwards because it was a lot of pressure to it. There was a lot of stares
and I was like, No, this is a clause. I don't really like
public speaking, but being a part of this
whole program and everything, it actually gave you a little bit more confident going into it because I never thought
I would be for it, especially bragging about
it
at school. Like I think. Cool points earned for sure. I love that. Well, good for you. And you know what? Confidence
it will take you very, very far, no matter
what kind of confidence that is. So I'm glad you've been able
to get out of your comfort zone. And Talia, you're
a sixth grader, so proud of you. So tell me a little bit
about your goals. And I see here
that you were in the Media club, among many other
different clubs, which I'm a little biased.
I love that you did that. Talk to me abo
ut some of the programs
that you really love and that you want to
continue doing. I love the media program
because I got to interview people in the club and bottles. I was just saying them how they
like, but also stuff like that or like taking photos. We were running a while running
but have not really working. With the
equipment, just being safe. Walking, you know, with
the microphone and the camera. It was just very enjoyable. And other programs
that I like is Smart girls. We talk about like w
omanhood and how we're stepping into that
stuff. Like, so. Yeah, I absolutely love that. And so with that, I see you're
both in Smart Girls, which is something
that sticks out to me kind of. Can you guys describe
what that program is? So it's basically we're learning about all the all the things
that women go through. And it's like something
to be proud of because we're women,
you know, we're yeah, we're woman. So we're learning about that
and with different teachers or different people. Yeah, y
eah, totally. I know you're a step closer
towards kind of the mindset of what the heck
am I going to do with my life? I know, I know. You got this,
okay? It's going to be fine. But I know you've
developed a strong passion for mental health. You kind of want to go into
child psychology. Tell me kind of
why you wanted to go where you want to go in
that direction. My path is like, what made me
want to go into that. So like usually
when people say something traumatizes them or whatever,
they kind of
use it as a as a bad thing
or a negative thing. But for me, I want to use it
in a positive light. So knowing everything
I've seen when I was a child, I want to use that to like show
other children they're not alone
and everything. Like, I love that. I love that. And you can do it. Literally everyone
in your community thinks so. And Talia, you're going to be in this seat in like 15 years
if you want. If you really wanted to tell me when you got this award
and when you got recognized in this way,
you know,
how are you going to take this and hopefully have it
move you into your next steps because you want to go. You want
to go to I me look at my notes. You want to end up
to go to Harvard? Yes, you can do it. Does this recognition
make you feel like you can go in that direction? Definitely. It definitely does
make me feel like that because like, it's just more
adding up to what I want to do is put like a step, step, step. So I'm just like,
she's helping me. Yeah, well,
I love. With the co
nfidence. Yes. Well, congratulations.
Thank you so much for coming in. Thank you, Jeremy, for,
of course, for pouring into our beautiful
young youth in our community.
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