Background
Youth Leadership Bakersfield is a collaborative outgrowth of the community-wide Vision 2020 assessment process and is patterned after the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce’s adult Leadership Bakersfield program and its objectives.  Focusing on high school sophomores, juniors and seniors with untapped leadership potential, the program is designed specifically for those students who exhibit leadership skills that are as yet untapped and/or unfocused and who are neither “at risk” nor already participating in high profile leadership activities.

Program Goals and Objectives
Youth Leadership Bakersfield program goals reflect the Chamber’s mission and include: identifying potential leaders within the high school youth community; developing their leadership skills; increasing awareness of diverse career paths; enhancing perspectives of local opportunities; creating a spirit of cooperation; and encouraging civic involvement.  Students who mirror the area’s diversity are brought together in an environment that is founded upon and operates on the principles and practices of collaboration and teamwork.  Program planning and implementation are predicated on an ideology that has community pride at its heart.  The ultimate goal is to provide a broad-based platform from which the leaders of tomorrow may emerge. 
 
Students are selected by a team of principals, counselors and teachers from each high school.  After the recruitment period is closed, a selection committee comprised of Youth Leadership Bakersfield Advisory Council and members of the business community reviews all applications and essays to determine those candidates to be contacted for the interview process.  Based on the combined rankings of both the application screening and interview processes, class candidates are selected.

Approximately once a month from January through April/May, participants attend an all-day seminar during which important community issues are presented and discussed.  The format of each seminar includes a combination of lectures, panel discussions, hands-on activities and on-site visits to locales relevant to the day’s theme.

Curriculum topics reflect Bakersfield and Kern County’s diversity and include: Leadership & Ethics; Arts & Culture; Law, Justice and Public Safety; Health & Human Services; Energy; and Agriculture, with a special focus on career and entrepreneurial options and opportunities in these and related industries.  Participants have a unique opportunity to directly interact with leaders from throughout the community. These individuals share their stories and expertise with the students, offering guidance, inspiration and encouragement and providing mentoring, job shadowing and practical advise.

At the conclusion of the program year, participants who successfully complete the requirements of the program are honored during graduation ceremonies.

There is no charge for students to participate in the Youth Leadership Bakersfield program, which is underwritten by sponsorships and grants provided by partnering businesses, organizations and agencies.

For details, e-mail tsterling@bakersfieldchamber.org.