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!

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!