CENTERVILLE—The Centerville City Youth Council gave an end-of-year report to Mayor Clark Wilkinson and members of the city council at their May 6 meeting.

Several of the youth council members reported on the Utah Youth Council Leadership Conference they attended at Utah State University in March where they heard from speakers, attended workshops and participated in a banquet and dance. 

Lynlee Hernandez and Ella Stevens were members of the state board which included 10 youth and five advisers and helped plan the conference which was offered in two sessions, March 6 – 8 and March 13 – 15. About 200 hundred attended the first session while 400 attended the second.

“It was a lot of fun to be both on the state council and to actually be able to attend,” Hernandez said. “It honestly was such an amazing experience to be able to be with all these people and plan it and meet new people from different councils. I feel like this conference is extremely beneficial and is something that we should continue to plan and fund because I honestly believe that it has made a difference in people’s lives.”

“I feel like it's a really great opportunity for youth just going and participating in the conference as well as helping plan it,” Stevens said. “For me helping plan it, it was great to see all the things that go on behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly and all the things you need to consider especially having both weeks and seeing how it went differently with different groups and different amounts of people.”

Ava Wright, who has been on the youth council for two years, was able to go to the conference for the first time this year, she said. 

“I'm so glad that I was able to attend before I graduated because I'd heard so many good things, but it honestly ended up being even better than I had expected,” she said. 

Wright particularly enjoyed the networking classes. 

“I was able to meet with people who are involved with similar activities as me from places not close to here and not people I’ve ever met,” she said. “I think that [networking] is a really valuable skill that is going to help me as I go off to college and I’m really grateful that I could go.”

Cara Vogrinec said these conferences really help prepare the youth for their future. 

“Something from past conferences that I’ve really learned to appreciate is my core values that was taught I think two years ago at one of the conferences,” she said “One of my core values that I've learned to take away from that is being involved and being connected with others like my peers and also adults that have more experience than me that I can learn from.”

 Youth Mayor Bridgette Lowe has been a member of the youth council for three years and has been able to attend leadership conferences each year.

 “My favorite thing about it is seeing how we take the lessons that we learn there and really implement them into our meetings and our planning sessions as the youth council,” she said. “Every year we plan a variety of events, and I see us taking the leadership skills that we learned. I honestly really appreciate the opportunity to be able to be a part of something like that being able to see all these people learning things that will help them in their everyday lives in the future.”

Seven members of the youth council recently graduated from high school. Four – Ava Wright, Bridget Lowe, Cara Warnick and Ella Stevens – were recognized that night and presented with custom pen sets which sported the Centerville City logo.

“We would like to recognize them for their years of service on our youth council serving our community and serving the youth,” youth council advisor Haley Turner said. “I’ve had the honor of getting to know these members through the past few years that they’ve been [serving]. They will be greatly missed. As they go on to these bigger and better things in their lives we hope they remember us and [that] we got to take part in becoming a little bit of who they are.”

After the presentation Wilkinson thanked the youth council members and their advisers for their work and participation at city events throughout the year including the Christmas party and Easter kick off.

“You graduating seniors don’t forget Centerville,” he said. “Don’t get down out there in the world and forget your hometown because going back to your roots is pretty critical.”