Akilah Ffriend is a
senior Health Policy and Management major through the UNC- Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a
first-generation American, with her family hailing from Jamaica. Although
growing up in a socioeconomically disadvantaged community in the Bronx, New
York, the correlation between life-enhancing opportunities and future success
has always been made. Her interest in youth development stems from the fact that her life
thus far has been a testament of the success any person can achieve if they
have the belief and support of other individuals as well as personal drive. She
believes that every youth deserves the opportunity to succeed and that by unlocking
youth potential, youth could be empowered to reach their full promise.
Brent McKnight is a sophomore History and Global Studies double major at UNC-Chapel Hill. Brent grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. His work in Charlotte, Haiti, and Nicaragua have taught him the value of education and opportunity for all, but especially for youth, those who will grow up to be future leaders.
Kyree Tittle is from Fayetteville, North
Carolina and a senior studying Communications-Media and Productions from UNC at
Chapel Hill. He has attended schools that resemble that of a
giant daycare, where more time is spent on obedience than on education. When
Kyree visited one of those schools recently, they were teaching students, of
driving age, the importance of taking out the trash at home and washing dishes,
mandated by the county, instead of how to make use of opportunities in life. He
wants to help bring out the leadership potential in our youth for the
betterment of our future by having kids be able to lead their peers in a
positive direction. In his opinion, those that have lived out their lives rely
too much on past experience, producing a static number of solutions, while our
youth are able to add on to that number.
