Youth Passion Statements

By: Charles Kuo, DC Programs Manager

Photos courtesy of AALEAD Staff

A statement is a clear meaningful expression and declaration. It can define what you hope to achieve and give you purpose. A statement can speak what’s been in your heart into existence. During this summer, DC youth have the opportunity to participate in our “Ignite Your Power Within” summer program. During this six week program, high school youth have served as camp leaders to our middle-school aged youth. Camp leaders are facilitating their own workshops and creating ways to overcome negative self talk through various mediums of art: spoken word, music, dance, and visual art. As camp leaders, youth aged 14-18, prepared by participating in leadership training. One of the activities that the youth engaged in was the formation of their “passion statements”. Each youth were encouraged to consider what their dreams, values and skills.

Youth were asked:

What values do you hold dear, that help guide how you live your life?

What areas are you already perceived as an expert?

What types of things (people, places, activities) that energize you?

What are some goals you still want to explore/achieve in your life?

After defining their values, skills, and dreams, youth were tasked to connect them into one powerful statement. The results were impactful and reflective. Each passion statement was unique to each youth and gave insight into what they hope to become. We hope that these passion statements inspire you to consider your passions and to reflect on what you want to be.

Here are DC youth passion statements: 

“My passion is helping others through problem solving and analysis because of compassion and empathy”

“My passion is to travel around the world and eat through knowledge and hard work because I value happiness and family.

“My passion is to learn about different cultures and traditions through conducting research and testing cultural cuisine because I value diversity”

“My passion is to help others through my many years of accumulating knowledge and experience because everything learned should be shared, not kept”

“My passion is to travel around the world hard work because I value others people culture”

“I love my community and friends. They give me energy and strength. Embrace your identities and life events because they will guide you and make you feel content”

“My passion is to receive a degree in college through my determination because I value education”

“My passion is to major and specialize in STEM through mastering engineering skills because I value knowledge and education leading into a profitable future”

“My passion is playing video games through making new friends because I value happiness”

“My passion is science (to become a chemical engineer) through constant hard work and determination because I want to make my parents proud and give back to the environment!”

“My passion is becoming an e-sports player though playing video games because I want to make my parents proud and I like money”

“My passion is to find someone special through my understanding of each and every single one of my friends because I value friendship and the identity of my friends”

“My passion is happiness through humor because humor adds something interesting and allows us to not take ourselves too seriously”

“My passion is to become a photographer or a model through taking nice pictures and knowing how to pose because I want to make my parents and myself proud”

“My passion is to be free through creativity because my personality”

We look forward to supporting more DC youth in the Fall. If you’re interested in hearing more about youth programming in DC, please connect with Vi Bui at vbui@aalead.org and Aaron Orpilla at aorpilla@aalead.org