Monday, September 1, 2014

Youth Intern Recognition for the Summer of 2014

We got some youngin's that need to be recognized!! 
I'm not sure if all of you noticed our band of pre-teens and teenagers that have been bopping around the barn this summer but our Youth Interns were pretty special this summer and each of them needs to be recognized.
Tristin Rose-Morley started off here first before school even left out last spring. The reason she is first on my list is because I have seen the most personal growth out of this young lady! By the end of the summer she has transformed into an incredibly responsible, determined, focused and humble person. It was a lot of work for her to get up the guts to talk to strangers in the beginning, and today I got to listen to her helping and talking to trail riders on the trail like it was nothing. Her instructions clear, her conversations interesting, and reliable, reliable, reliable. Way to get over the hurdles!
Next up is the Jadyn Lauper. This powerhouse of a young woman never gives up. She always jumps at challenges and sets high goals for herself. Over the summer I watched her really develop an understanding of how to ask for help, offer help, and give help without being bossy, condescending or demanding (which is more than most of us adults can say...). On the trails she learned how to speak up, give instructions to large groups and last week she even was able to guide out a group of regular adult clients on her own!
Then there is Kathleen Clifford. Can there be someone more responsible for herself, others and pretty much everything around her? Her OCD was well appreciated this summer along with her smart riding skills and logical common sense. She has an innate way of helping others and a clear way of giving directions. Over the summer I saw her sense of timing and context truly thrive, being able to read situations before they even happened and jump in to prevent them. I see her going far in this world.
Miss Ava Hameister is another that we look forward to spending more time with in the future. Ava lives a bit further than everyone else so she wasn't always able to come up regularly in the past. This summer, however, I watched her really grow. She remembers pretty much every instruction and retains it, developing and building off of each lesson. Her horsemanship and skills in the barn truly flourished and I can't wait to have her back.
However, the biggest recognition need to go to Raevyn Saunders. Rae headed up the entire Youth Intern program this year, managing the workload, schedules, and even day to day routines. This is a TOUGH job for any adult and this amazing teenager took the bull by the horns and really grew as a manager over the weeks and months learning that leadership doesn't come from authority, but from mentorship and support. I'm very, very proud of her and the amount of personal growth that she displayed in managing this program.