 Freshman Natalie Torpey was honored as Outstanding Performance by an Actress YP Alumna and former Youth Council member Natalie Torpey was honored at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for her recent performance in Clybourne Park at Albright College!
Check out the full article on Albright Colleges' website. Congrats Natalie!
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 by Ming Jiang
It was a seven day long experience in LEAP, and it had become the best week of my life! I couldn't believe a-week-long program could be the turning point of my life! There were some points that I was never taught in school, but what I Learned from LEAP that changed my life were the following: goals, DISC, gratitude, and friendship. How to gain your confidence and lead you to success? Set a goal, and achieve it! During LEAP, we were asked to write down our goals on a sheet of paper that we could carry and read everyday. The goal requirements were to be "SIMple" which stood for "be Specific", "be Important", and "be Measurable". For example, one of my goals was "I want to finish my summer internship in the School District by August 31th, 2015, and be able to continue it on September 10th, 2015." I never noticed how different is what between thinking my goals through in my mind and as oppose to actually write down the goals on the paper. The goals in mind is passive and illusory, making it easy to betray my mind. However, write the goals down is a more active action, and I can remind myself what my goals are and remain faithful to my promise! After setting goals, the next step was to find our passion and purpose: why do I want to achieve this goal? what can I do in order to achieve my goal? The last step was to make actions! There was a quote I heard from LEAP that impressed me most: "The secret to success is no secret! It's called worked your butt off and find a way to add more value to your and others' live!"  by: Nikhila Viswanathan
Our 2015 Matthew Stuski Scholarship recipients Faith Jones Jackson, Ming Jiang, and Nikhila Viswanathan, are back in Philly from a week long leadership conference (LEAP) in Los Angeles. We checked in with Nikki to hear about her experience and this is what he had to say...! Our journey began in Philadelphia airport where Ming, Faith, and I checked our bags in and received our tickets to Los Angeles! After a long trip, we were greeted by leap coaches who helped us with our luggage. As we waited for more Leapers in our van to UCLA, the coaches introduced themselves and started dancing to songs in the radio! It was at this moment I thought : "Wow! We already started a dance party as soon as we landed! I can't wait to see what's in store for us on campus!" It was only after the week ended that I realized that I would have new reasons to smile each day: 1. My Group After a great opening ceremony, we split into groups. When I introduced myself, I was timid and spoke softly. My coach, Alex, asked me to speak up and I was worried that the people in my group would judge me for being timid. But I was wrong. Throughout the week, everyone in my group became so close. We all had different traits that set us apart, but made us a great team when we were put together. We had pageant title holders, a chef, an African scholar, a returning leaper, an intelligent scholar, a silly Australian, and a panda lover (ME!). Throughout the week we had each other's backs and always found reasons to smile. My coach Alex selected me as the "BIGGESTleaper" from my group because she saw how invested I was in our group and how much spirit I had. It was my honor to make my group members smile and laugh that week but honestly- they in turn had done something for me: Noelle, John, Auna, Lora, Linda, David, and Alex all gave me a reason to smile!  Each year, Young Playwrights send selected students to a week long leadership conference at UCLA in partnership with The LEAP Foundation, Inc. The conference is designed to teach leadership skills to participating students, aged 15 to 24, in small groups under the guidance of the conference faculty and individual coaches - whereby they will develop fundamental tools that are integral to creating success in their life.
This year our Matthew Stuski Scholarship recipients are three current and former PYP Youth Council members: Faith Jones Jackson, Nikhila Viswanathan, and Ming Jiang. One of the components of the conference requires attendees to write a speech that they will deliver in front of an audience. This frightened one of our scholars to the point where he was about to reject the scholarship offer. Meet Ming. A 2015 Young Voices Monologue Festival winning playwright (Who Are You) and recent Chinese immigrant who sought the assistance of PYP staff members to cultivate his speech delivery skills. After rehearsing for three weeks, Ming found his confidence and perseverance to deliver his speech in front of small audience here in our new office. READ MORE for Ming's motivational speech and be sure to check our blog page for updates on LEAP 2015! |