Leveling Up with Skills: Estella Brings Virtual Workshops to Foster Youth
Huge shoutout to Estella Lavrik and her Student Government Association (SGA) from Jupiter High School for taking the lead on valuable skills-based projects. Over the past couple of weeks, Estella and her SGA hosted two virtual workshops designed to help foster youth build confidence, learn new life skills, and better understand what good citizenship looks like. One of these workshops taught about civics and citizenship, while the other one honed in on the individual citizens voice, their vote, and the power that it carries. Estella and her SGA are now working on promoting this amazing content to reach more people, trying to target local foster children and teens to educate them about our country and encourage citizenship.
Estella put so much effort into planning and creating an engaging space, and the impact was clear — students participated through voice, chat, and discussion, making every minute count. “I feel inspired to continue making a change, especially after I got such positive feedback from the workshops. I feel that every person who attended learned something, and that motivates me to keep contributing.” Why It Matters Foster youth don’t always get easy access to mentorship or skill-building opportunities. Workshops like these give them tools, encouragement, and a reminder that people care about their growth and future.
A Moment That Hit Different For Estella, the second workshop was a turning point. The appreciation she got back from the students showed her how real the impact was: “The…workshop[s] really opened my eyes when I saw how much appreciation I received in return for all of the hard work I put into planning out this project.” Get Involved Not sure if your idea is “good enough” or if anyone will show up?
Estella felt that too. Her advice is spot-on: “Keep trying, because even when a project seems a failure at first, with enough effort you can make it into a success!”
You never know who needs exactly what you have to offer. Just start—your skills can seriously make someone’s day.