The role of the Experiential Opportunities Team is to assist Youth Interactive in identifying and securing enriching experiences beyond YI’s entrepreneurial programs that YI teens cannot otherwise access or afford. YI has already provided its teens with access to a variety of programs such as Pilot Training, Ocean Wildlife trips, and visits to the Santa Barbara Art Museum.

We hope to expand on these offerings with area summer camps, job shadowing, fundraising for scholarships, and new unique opportunities during the school year. This team’s members will work directly with YI teens to identify experiential and occupational interests, assist with camp scholarship registrations, and to review their experiences for future reference. These interactions may evolve into broader mentor/mentee relationships.

Specific Summer needs:  

We are currently looking for assistance and support with the following summer-camp related needs:

• Introductions to anyone involved in running a daily or weekly summer camp program that may be of interest to YI teens.

• Sponsors for part or all of the cost for a YI teen to attend a summer camp.  Camp fees range from $130/week to over $1,000 for sleep away or multi-week sessions.

We are also looking for adults willing to have a YI teen shadow them at their workplace for one day (or a half day) during the summer or school year. Our hope is merely to offer YI teens an informative and inspirational glimpse of occupations that may interest them. The best shadowing experiences will include personal interaction with the Shadowee. No further mentorship is expected, but it could of course evolve if desired by both Shadowee and Shadower. Current YI teens have expressed particular interest in the following occupational areas:

• Graphic Design  (anyone working in Adobe Suite, Photoshop, or Illustrator)

• Architecture (with design components)

• Fashion as a business (patterns, sewing, manufacture, design)

• Jewelry Design as a business

• Culinary Arts as a business (chefs, sous-chefs, baking)

• Metal Work

• Autoshop

If you are interested in joining the Experiential Opportunities Team or have any questions, please contact the Experiential Opportunities Team Leader: Dan Meisel at danielameisel@yahoo.com