by Leah Allen, Intern, GenerationOn

After spending the first two days at the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service and seeing a bunch of well-dressed professionals with Blackberries and business cards, I was skeptical that many of them would be interested in attending a workshop led by a few teenagers like me.

The Let Us Lead! Workshop, the only session at NCVS created and led by youth, was a workshop focused on tips and tools for effectively engaging young adults as part of an organization’s team.

The creators of the workshop included me, Leah Allen, GenerationOn intern, Tom Cruz, former GenerationOn intern, and two Bank of America Student Leaders, Melisa Bardhi and Meril Pothen.

Around the time the workshop was soon to start, however, most of the tables were completely full!

I was surprised, but also inspired to see that these adults were interested in what we as youth had to say.

The workshop was designed to help non-profits and corporations find roles for young adults beyond just sitting them in a cubicle with a computer, a pile of papers to be filed, and a swift “Here you go.”

I’ve learned first hand that young adults are just like marshmallows! They’re perfectly capable and delicious on their own, but the same way a marshmallow expands and becomes significantly better after being put in the microwave, young adults are able to surpass the limited amount of potential they thought they possessed when they are placed in an environment with plenty of resources and energy.

One of the main slogans in the workshop, created by Meril, was EARS.

EARS stands for Empowerment, Aid, Reflection, and Support, which are the four key components needed to get the most out of the young adults on your team.

Ways to Empower young adults include teaching them skills and giving them opportunities to operate more like a part of the team, and less like a paper sorter.

Ways to achieve this include allowing them to sit in on meetings and contribute, giving them independence to work on projects where they make decisions about the best way to go about it, and so forth.

Remember that young adults can add a fresh perspective to the mix that others may never have thought of – especially for organizations whose mission involves engaging young people!

Providing Aid for the young players on your team is essential in making sure they have a productive experience.

Professional development workshops are a great way to aid young adults in being better workers in the immediate future while they are still working with you, and also in their future careers.

On a smaller scale, aid can be as simple as making sure volunteers or interns have all the tools they need to be effective.

An intern with a barely functioning computer, or no real place to sit and work, isn’t going to be as effective as you would like.

Allowing young adults to Reflect and give feedback to the organization will help your organization both presently and in the future.

When a young adult on your team provides a criticism, it’s a gift with which future interactions with young adult volunteers or employees can be improved, providing your company with a team member who will be better equipped to help.

Being there to Support young adults on your team means staying in touch with previous young team members and letting them know you’re there to give advice, or to help them seek out opportunities in the future.

It’s important to keep in mind when working with young adults that they’re not going to be volunteers and interns forever.

Sooner or later, they’re going to be leaders in their companies, communities and beyond.

At the end of the workshop many of the participants mentioned (with a tone of sincerity that made me believe them) that this was the best workshop they had attended at conference.

I hope they are now well-equipped with the tools they need to help their respective teams harness the energies of their young people.

Leah Allen is 17 years old and comes from Jamaica, Queens. She started doing community service at her school in 7th grade and is currently a volunteer intern at generationOn.