Written by: Leah Stein, 8th Grade, Ahava BBG #2447.
BBYO is filled with leadership opportunities, whether you come in as a leader, a follower, or unsure what BBYO even stands for. The skills BBYO provides us, like leadership, public speaking and program planning, can help us all throughout our lives. From school and work to your personal life, everything you do relies on some of these BBYO lessons, all hidden within games, activities, applications, committees, and some of the best years of your life.
Like most 13 year olds, I considered myself to be a follower, a little awkward, quiet, and generally normal. Then, like many of my brothers and sisters, I joined BBYO completely clueless, and was instantly hooked and wanted to do as much as I could. I quickly started to become more confident, more likely to speak-up, and a leader. All things I previously thought were too far out of my comfort zone. I got to steer this year’s fall convention, become a chapter chair, help plan this year’s J-Serve, and be on LOR’s Press Corps team.
Our regional Press Corps Committee is a team of 12 passionate members, ranging from 8th-12th grade, selected by our Regional Mazkirim (VP Communication) to elevate regional communication and publicity. We take pictures and videos at events, we’re making a yearbook, and of course managing this blog! I applied because I thought I would enjoy these duties and I decided that my approach for BBYO would be to go for anything I could, because you can never truly know the impact these opportunities can have on you, and they don’t always come around twice.
This blog will feature posts such as this one, written by teens from all around the Greater Toronto Area. We will use this as our platform to express our opinions and beliefs, report on what’s going on in Lake Ontario Region and showcase everything that makes our region special! Any member from the region can write a blog post! If you would like to write a post, let a member of the Press Corps or our Regional Mazkirim know! We are so excited for all the great things to come this year and can’t wait to continue to showcase it here!