“All kids are innate creators and innovators” with Veronica Alvidrez

This Monday, we launched our fourth cohort of the Social Change Internship (SCI). Created out of a need to satiate student experiences amidst the pandemic, our Experience Manager – Veronica Alvidrez – and the Education team underwent empathy research to create what is now known as SCI. A conglomeration of real-world learning, design thinking, and social justice, students from this internship program have pursued feats such as pushing second-hand smoke regulations through their local City Councils, and hosting large-scale events with U.S. congresswomen.

A social entrepreneur herself, Alvidrez talks about the importance of getting involved in communities to trigger systemic change, and what Kansas City can learn from its youth:

“During the pandemic, we wanted to offer a valuable experience to many of the young people left at home with no options for an internship or an entrepreneurial experience. It was our goal to think innovatively at a time when many were throwing in the towel on student engagement, and were feeling overwhelmed by Zoom exhaustion.

Through our own empathy research, we found that young people were extremely passionate about the social issues and conversations happening around us – whether that was climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ discrimination or the overall political climate.

With this information, we designed an internship to match the needs of young people: The Social Change Internship (SCI). SCI allows students to explore topics they care about while considering their busy lifestyles and disadvantages of a virtual setting. Despite the setbacks, we embrace the benefit of being able to join students from all over the Kansas City region with no locale constraint.

We’re blurring state lines and school district boundaries.

Our Education Team firmly believes in creating spaces where young people contribute to real problems. The fact is many young people are already engaging in activism. But for the most part, it just isn’t happening at their schools. While many young people are passionate about creating social change and figuring out ways to plug themselves in, many are left in the dark – siloed in their own curiosity. The format of our program helps them grow in knowledge of the social topic they care about and, more importantly, helps them to refine their points of view.

Most of us remember what it was like to finish high school – to enter the real world. You feel a bit lost, and unsure as to what comes next. Young people today face that same feeling, but with many more options in front of them.

College is no longer the only acceptable route and young people know this.

High school students need more opportunities to freely explore what they are interested in and passionate about. As a society, overall, we need to equip young graduates with the skills to determine their own route. Only then will we be maximizing and fully benefiting from their vast talent, creative perspectives and valiant spirits.

And trust me – they’re ready to contribute.

Imagine what the Kansas City experience would be if we believed all youth are innate creators and starters, and we raised them to believe this themselves.

If young people are rethinking second-hand smoking legislation, pushing the status-quo of gender representation in politics, and figuring out ways to support the Monarch butterflies on their yearly migration south – all within a span of eight weeks – imagine what they could do in a full school year and beyond.”