Irvine’s High School Youth Action Team (HSYAT) held its 30th annual teen summit — a youth development conference — at the Lakeview Senior Center on March 9. The event hosted Mayor Farrah Khan, Beckman High science teacher Phillip Chow and other speakers to talk about subjects such as motivation and time management, according to HSYAT class representative and junior Aaron Peters.
This year’s teen summit, HSYAT’s largest event of the year, boasted 313 attendees from schools across Irvine and other parts of Southern California.
“It is really impressive that Teen Summit has been around for so long,” HSYAT member and sophomore Chloe Chen said. “Not only the event, but many speakers have been participating and donating their time continuously for tens of years as well.”
To encourage participation and foster inclusivity, the event featured activities such as a pancake toss race and raffle alongside workshops of varying themes including public speaking and meditation.
“The biggest part of teen summit is our speakers,” HSYAT representative and junior Mahima Manivannan said. “We’re so grateful to have them, especially because they’re just interacting with their community, and they’re doing something that they don’t have to do since they are volunteering their time to be here. Teaching youth and being able to spread what’s important to them and spread their messages is just really impactful and inspiring to me.”
In accordance with the Percy Jackson theme, many HSYAT members donned costumes inspired by Percy Jackson’s Greek mythos such as laurels and neon orange t-shirts labeled “Youth Action Team Camp Half Blood.” Decorations redolent of Greek architecture and mythology were also pasted on the walls of each room.
The HSYAT club at Portola High helped with publicity efforts for the teen summit by spreading the word at club meetings and outside of school while also putting up flyers around campus and posting on social media, according to Peters.
“We really just want to bring all sorts of high schoolers from all over Irvine to engage in community activities and get to know each other,” HSYAT representative and junior Morgan Tien said. “It’s to build connections. A lot of people make new friends at teen summit and we like to keep that going.”
Going forward, HSYAT plans to organize more service projects such as beach clean ups and YATsgiving, an annual fall event to help parks and community organizations make preparations for the holidays, as well as host team summit again next year with new speakers and activities.
