Rebekah (17) began her YA journey only at the age of 14. Here she is, 3 years later, talking about her experiences.
How did you first get involved with the Young Ambassadors programme?
I was only in S3 when I first got involved with the Young Ambassadors programme. I originally picked a Graphic Communication course as one of my subjects at school, but when that got cancelled, I was a bit unsure of what I wanted to do - I didn’t want to do a language or anything like that. One of my teachers suggested a sport qualification course and since I enjoyed PE I thought, why not! While on the course my PE teacher invited me to attend the YA conference in Aberdeen. I had no idea of what it was about, but I was told it was about developing leadership skills. The conference was brilliant, and I couldn’t wait to go back to the school and implement all my ideas and get started on this journey.
Since my year as a YA, I’ve done a lot of volunteering. I work part-time with Active Schools delivering coaching sessions to primary schools. I got involved of the back of organising an Active Girls’ Day 3 years ago and I’ve been working with them ever since. Through Active Schools I’ve organised a variety of city-wide events and conferences, as well as connected with many schools and clubs in the area. My work was acknowledged by my peers as they nominated me for the Volunteer of the Year 2018 award at Aberdeen Sports Awards - which I later won.
How did your YA experience influence your skills development?
Before the programme I was really shy and would never volunteer to go anywhere alone. Young Ambassadors has really helped to grow my confidence and I’m now more than happy to go for any opportunity that comes my way.
In the beginning I spent a lot of time with my mentor, where we would sit down together, make an action plan, discuss ideas and debate what would work best in our school. After three months my mentor went on a maternity leave and the YA mentoring duties got passed onto another person in our PE department who wasn’t as experienced on the programme. This was a real catalyst for me and I think I learned a lot from this experience. My communication skills grew, and I built up the confidence I needed to go up to strangers and ask for help. These are probably things I wouldn’t have learned so quick if my mentor was there.
I then got to be part of the YA Conference Delivery team which was a great experience. This helped me find new ways to communicate and connect with new people as well as improve my presentation skills. It also built up my skills around thinking on my feet and being creative. I would highly recommend any of you to apply to be part of the Conference Delivery team if the opportunity comes.
Your YA Legacy
I organised a ‘handover’ type meeting with the new YAs as I feel it’s really important to get everyone on the same page and make sure that there’s progress, rather than each new group starting from scratch.
I didn’t know much about the programme before going to the conference, so I made sure that there is more awareness of this within the school for future YAs. I created a YA noticeboard in the PE department as well as create regular content for the school newsletter. I think it’s important to keep people informed, so that they know there’s different options to get involved in sports.
What about your future?
I am hoping to study sport development at North East Scotland College (NESCOL) next year. I finished my application for the course recently and I actually ran over the word limit talking about my YA experiences! I hope all the things I have learned and the opportunities I took while being a YA will help me to get in.
After college and university, I’m hoping to work within Active Schools or sport development.
Any advice for new YAs?
Just go out there and do your thing! There’s an opportunity around every corner.