On November 15, 2018, #NCWorksNextGen hosted its first Youth Choice Awards Program.
Every month, we host a Rap Session with our students. These sessions focus on enhancing their professional and personal skills (e.g. financial literacy, entrepreneurship). During the planning process, we thought it would be a good idea to take a break from professional development and celebrate our youth’s accomplishments (especially since this would be the last Rap Session for 2018). Ideas were solicited from the entire team and we decided that we would give out the following awards:
1. Most Valuable Intern (WIOA)
2. Most Valuable Intern (Downtown Youth)
3. Big Boss/Leadership
4. Rising Star/Most Improved
5. Most Dependable
6. Effective Communicator
7. Best Attitude
8. Perseverance
9. Great Personality
10. Best Math Student (GED, HiSET)
11. Best Reading Student (GED, HiSET)
In addition to these awards, we also recognized everyone who successfully passed their GED, HiSET exam and two featured employers - The Learning Experience and H.E.A.R.T.S. Foundation. Our intentions were for employers to recommend candidates for the Most Valuable Intern (MVI) awards and Career Coaches to make all other nominations. However, some employers were so impressed with their interns that they ended up recommending them for more than one category.
"Danzel has been a strong addition to our team... He always puts his best foot forward and I am proud to say we get to enjoy his personality and value his strong work ethics. If there is ever an issue, he keeps his cool and solves the problem at hand." ~Augmentality Labs
This was our first time doing this awards program. Overall, the program was a huge success and we hope to make this an annual event to celebrate the accomplishments of our youth. Many thanks to from PDQ Fresh in Durham for the food donation and the gifts from multiple local partners including Food Lion, Harris Teeter, GoTriangle, and AAA Insurance.