3 young participants representing Aguas Buenas, Carolina and Isabela Clubs
Three young participants of Youth of the Year 2023 received the Advisor Award, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award and STEM Award for presenting their project, Climate Change: A Threat to Puerto Rico’s Water Reserves during the NASS Summit sponsored by the Center of Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington Transformation.
Aracellys Soto, Sofia Flores and Joediel Reyes were part of the 50 young people from the United States and Puerto Rico who presented at the National Advocacy and STEM Summit. “The NASS Summit 2023 of the Center of Transformation has been an experience that will trace the route between Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico (BGCPR) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, strengthening and positioning Puerto Rican youth globally. The participants demonstrated their leadership and commitment to achieve justice in the management and access to drinking water in their communities, with their environmental awareness project. The proposals of your project are a step forward in advocacy initiatives to stop climate change,” said Keila Rodríguez, manager of the educational pillar at BGCPR.
For their part, the young people who honored the youth of Puerto Rico, expressed the importance of this experience to “be able to raise my voice and make the situations of Puerto Rico be recognized,” according to Aracellys. For his part, Joediel acknowledged that “from this experience I take new knowledge, new perspectives and the responsibility of being part of a great change. For Sofía “with this great achievement we want immediate action to be taken with water reservoirs and create a mandatory dredging law. Thank you for the opportunity for growth, I just did my bit to make the change that we so badly need happen.”
Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico seeks to offer the best opportunities for the development and greatest potential of our participants. “I am grateful to represent Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, I hope to be able to inspire other young people to follow in my footsteps”, as Aracellys expresses it, for our young people to participate and represent Puerto Rico
in forums at national and international level serves as motivation in their development and professional growth, forging their future.
For those who wish to contribute and support the mission and vision of the organization, they can make donations through donar.bgcpr.org or through ATH Móvil using pATH/BoysandGirlsClubsdePR.