Recently, I watched a short documentary about Important Places. It starts, “may you always remember the path that leads back, back to the Important Places.” For Colorado Young Leaders, that Important Place starts at the Kite Lake Trailhead, in the shadow of four...
CYL was awarded a grant on behalf of the VF Foundation to support the Youth Exploring Stewardship (YES) Coalition. We’re proud to work with 17 other great organizations as we collaborate to provide more outdoor experiences for youth of all ages across the Front...
Those who knew Lauren Guthrie reflected on her leadership style as “Kindly Bold.” If you look up “Kindly Bold” in the dictionary, it is not there. Seemingly impossible to define in a few, concise words, it is a leadership style that has to be lived out. A leadership...
What if we truly listened to our young people? How would our world change? On November 2nd, over 60 youth gathered at the History Colorado Center to take part in the 4th annual Colorado Young Leaders (CYL) Base Camp, a youth-led leadership conference created by CYL’s...
We’re taking time to reminisce about some of our favorite programs over the past year. This story comes to you from Sophia, CYL ’19, while on a trip in partnership with CYL’s program partner World Denver from August 2019. This opportunity led Sophia...
Leaving Colorado and moving to Virginia for college brought a lot of changes. One of them was that I all the sudden had no relationships with non-profits in the area! I was pretty overwhelmed with all the newness of college and only had 1 or 2 opportunities to...
“Embrace your own form of leadership while pushing your comfort zone in different aspects of your community.” These guiding words from CYL student Lauren G. underscore that leadership is not about who you are but how you engage within your community. Last May Lauren...
The summer after my freshman year of high school, my best friend Casey and I decided to make a summer bucket list filled with things from bike around downtown to tube down Boulder Creek to climb a 14er. It was September and we had done just about every other thing on...
It was early on a Saturday morning walking up to Sturm Hall at the University of Denver, and you could feel the excitement in the air as teens from across Metro Denver arrived for Colorado Young Leaders (CYL) Base Camp CommUnity, a youth leadership forum created by...
I climbed out of my hammock and took in a big whiff of chill morning air, tainted by the smell of aspen trees and the distinct butterscotch smell of ponderosa pine. The delicate bubble of a low creek whispered through the air, and I found delight in the early morning...
