Students at 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit focus on ‘building a better tomorrow’

Herkimer County students chose a theme of “building a better tomorrow” for the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit – with a focus on mental health and improving behavior in school.

Catholic Charities of Herkimer County Youth Summit organizers and student organizers from local schools said they identified that many students have struggled since COVID-19 with how to act now that they’re in school in-person again.

Herkimer Central School District senior Lilliana Langdon, one of the student organizers for the Youth Summit, said students wanted to use to Youth Summit to combat the attitude and mental health concerns.

“With this, we really want to flip that around,” Langdon said. “Mental health affects everyone, whether they want to talk about it or not. It’s such an important thing for everyone.”

About 100 students from 12 school districts and programs – as well as members of a new Herkimer County Youth Advisory Council – attended the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. Catholic Charities of Herkimer County organized the Youth Summit.

The school districts that had students at the Youth Summit were Central Valley, Dolgeville, Frankfort-Schuyler, Herkimer, Little Falls, Mount Markham, Owen D. Young, Poland, Town of Webb and West Canada Valley. Students also attended from the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Valley Pathways in Technology Early College High School (VP-TECH) and the Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy at Remington.

Trisha Alford, Youth engagement specialist for Catholic Charities of Herkimer County and Herkimer County System of Care, served as the Youth Summit coordinator. The student facilitators were Central Valley students Lauren Joy and Madison Sawyer, Dolgeville students Lexus Lyon and Jasmine Barnes, Herkimer students Lilliana Langdon and Madison Gargas, Little Falls students Makena Tooley and Avery McLaughlin, Owen D. Young student Isabella Valenta, Poland students Madeline Swanson and Karyn Castelano, VP-TECH students Zachary Cool and Landon Davidson and Town of Webb students Cameron Guirdy and Ellie Bartlett.

The “building a better tomorrow” theme, which Gargas came up with, tied into what students were concerned about since the start of the organization meetings, organizers said.

“During the first meeting, they talked about just being back together after COVID, people not being kind to each other and not knowing how to behave,” Alford said. “They kind of lost all of that.”

Near the beginning of the Youth Summit, Alford outlined the agenda for the day and said the guest speaker and other presenters are aware of the issues students chose for the event.

“I hope they focus on all these things and you learn a lot today,” she said.

2022 Youth Summit

Students started the day with refreshments and a yoga session. Guest speaker Jessie Funk, a singer and motivational speaker, then gave a presentation. Next, students participated in three breakout sessions. One session was a mindfulness activity involving adding positive affirmations to tote bags. Another session was mental wellbeing and cyber safety activity featuring a mental health game based on Jeopardy. The other session was a social development activity on healthy relationships and drug education with a trivia game that involved passing around a giant beach ball.

After lunch, students met in groups of their own schools and programs to develop action plans to put in place at their schools. Students wrote out their ideas on posters and then presented them on stage at Herkimer College in front of the other schools.

Alford told students the actions plans should be about how they can take all that they learned during the Youth Summit back to their schools to make some kind of positive change in their schools.

As Herkimer students met in one of the classrooms at Herkimer College, Langdon said their plan included inviting in a guest speaker to talk about positivity and mental health, involving yoga because students enjoyed that during the Youth Summit, putting positive affirmations around school and including them in announcements, providing “pocket hug” messages to give out to people, posting helpful hotline numbers around school and including them in announcements and organizing “mental health mornings” at school.

Students will take their proposed plans back to their schools – as well as photos of other schools’ posters – and can work with their school leaders to bring some of the ideas to life, Alford said. Near the end of the school year, the student facilitators will meet again to talk about what the schools did to put their action plans into place, Alford said.

Guest speaker

Langdon and Gargas introduced Jessie Funk as the guest speaker.

“We were really excited,” Langdon said. “She was great.”

Funk put on a presentation that was both upbeat and emotional – from singing songs and making students laugh to telling students personal stories of challenging and inspiring times of her life.

She used a demonstration with milk representing ourselves, chocolate syrup added to the milk representing positive people in our lives and Windex put into the milk representing toxic people in our lives. She said she loves history and has read biographies and researched more than 500 leaders, and she found a common thread that they didn’t let toxic people hold them back.

“We become the average of who we hang out with the most,” she said.

Funk said any Youth Summit attendees going through challenges should know they have the support of their schools and the Youth Summit organizers.

“You have an amazing opportunity to rise above anything you’ve faced, anything you will face,” she said.

Funk also talked about the importance of setting boundaries with toxic people. She said even though it can feel cheesy and awkward to say, you have to embrace it and say things such as: “I don’t like it. I don’t deserve it. I want it to stop.”

“There are things you can do to make it better,” she said.

Funk said she supports therapy, medication when appropriate and mindfulness. She said everyone deserves to be happy and respected, and she talked about the importance of making connections with other people and having a sense of belonging. She also encouraged students to contribute to making the world a better place as a way to also make themselves feel good.

Additionally, Funk said everyone needs to take time to do something that makes their worries fade away for a while.

“Singing makes me happy,” she said.

Funk then asked for ideas from students about what they love to do, and she got responses such as writing, playing sports, playing games and baking.

“We have to have a thing,” she said. “Find something you like that just makes you happy – that you can turn to when life gets hard.”

Youth Advisory Council

The Youth Advisory Council was an addition for the 2022 Youth Summit – joining the school districts and BOCES programs.

The council is a new group that is open to students from all school districts in Herkimer County. Thus far, there are seven students total from Central Valley and Dolgeville in the council, and the group has had five or six meetings.

The Youth Advisory Council participated in the Youth Summit because its themes tie closely to the goals of the council, but the council is more specifically about mental health, Alford said. Students who join the Youth Advisory Council have either experienced mental health issues themselves or have seen issues with people they know, she said.

“Their focus is to come together and bring mental health awareness to the community,” Alford said.

VP-TECH students presenting on stage at the Youth Summit at Herkimer College

Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Valley Pathways in Technology Early College High School (VP-TECH) students present a school action plan during the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. The VP-TECH students pictured from left: Herkimer student Ross Richards, Dolgeville student Cailiegh Youker, Central Valley student Ariana Ellis, Herkimer student Iesha Deubel, Central Valley student Ty Gookins, West Canada Valley student Landon Davidson, Central Valley student Zachary Cool and Frankfort-Schuyler student Theresa Delong.

Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Pathways Academy students pose for a photo at the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. Pathways Academy students pictured from left: Little Falls student Victoria (Alex) Perez, West Canada Valley student Lawson Staring, Poland student Blake Leigh, West Canada Valley student Robert Carpenter, Herkimer student Adrianna Burris and West Canada Valley student Macalah Cristallo. Not pictured, Pathways Academy student Derek Postol, of Poland, also attended the Youth Summit.

Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Pathways Academy students present a school action plan during the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. From left: Pathways Academy students Blake Leigh, of Poland; Adrianna Burris, of Herkimer, and Macalah Cristallo, of West Canada Valley.

Jessie Funk, a singer and motivational speaker, performs for students at the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. In addition to singing, Funk gave the guest speech at the Youth Summit.

Herkimer Central School District students present a school action plan during the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College. From left: sophomore Alyse Cannon, freshman Danny Bleaking, sophomore Sophia Bliss, freshman Jack Nevills, senior Madison Gargas, junior Victoria Staph, junior Kyle Carney and senior Lilliana Langdon.

Herkimer Central School District seniors Madison Gargas (left) and Lilliana Langdon (right), two of the student facilitators for the 2022 Herkimer County Youth Summit, speak on stage during the summit on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Herkimer College.