<p>My daughter recently received an invitation to attend the National Young Leaders Conference. She will be a junior in high school and was nominated by one of her teachers. Does anyone know anything about this program? Does it have any credibility with college admissions officers and would it enhance a prospective student's resume?</p>
<p>Burt, there are many threads on this subject, do a search. The skinny is that it is not a selective program and it will not enhance to the students resume. However, some people have felt that it is a good experience, that it is worth the money, and that it does show that the kid is doing something during the summer. The bottom line seems to be to do it for personal enrichment but not for impressing admissions officers.</p>
<p>I went, had a blast, and impressed counselors there so much I got an invite to come interview and was selected to be the Keynote Speaker for their JrNYLC conference in the fall (all expenses paid). Time of my life honestly. Try to get sponsored to ease expenses.</p>
<p>I also went, and had a really great experience. Go for yourself, becuase I suppose anyone can go if they really want. Don't go to put on your resume, because it won't help a lot.</p>
<p>The NYLC is, according to those who go, a very rewarding and fun experience. However, their marketing scheme of "colleges like this program" is misleading. Colleges know the most impressive programs, and NYLC is not one of them.</p>
<p>My son really enjoyed the entire program. Met our senators and representatives (one still corresponds with him), and got him interested in Model UN. He wrote one essay about the experience. Going is not that prestigious - it's what you make of it.</p>
<p>I didn't go to NYLC... but I did go to a Lead America program. Like pretty much everyone else has said, its not a very prestigious program, but it is an extremely rewarding experience. I will always remember my conference as an awesome time and it really helped my to come out of my shell. Oh yeah... and it does give you something to talk about for interviews (maybe not so much the admissions ones, but for scholarships). My conference was on forensic science, and I was talking about it during one of my scholarship interviews... turns out one of the men interviewing me worked for the FBI for years, and he was really interested in the program... I got the scholarship, so it couldn't have hurt to talk about it right? :)</p>
<p>I know some folks who had their children attend. One boy we know changed his mind concerning his eventual college major as a result.It can be another feather in your child's cap, another accomplishment, and sometimes the high school if aware of your intentions to attend can provide a scholarship. (they do at our H.S.) Also know another girl who fundraised to provide money to attend. She sold candy or something in the cafeteria at lunchtime to the kids and got together a significant amount. There also was a can at our local bakery counter for her but I can't imagine making a lot of money for the purpose this way.
The reason my sons did not go was we felt many of the places they would be taken we could take them at much less cost.Also be aware you are always welcome at your congressman's Capitol office and they may even take you to lunch if they know you are coming in advance.</p>
<p>I was just invited to go the the NYLC in the Fall and I'am having a hard time deciding if I should go or not. I have heard many conflicting reports about this program, from its a big scam, to it was the best life-changing experience of my life. If anyone has anything to say...PLEASE DO!!!!</p>
<p>From what I've read on various boards, none of those programs (national leadership, national health care, etc.) is a scam. If one is genuinely interested in the subject of any of those programs and one can easily afford the sky high price, it could be worth it to attend. The programs apparently are well run, a nice group of students is attracted to them, and the programs' curricula are interesting.</p>
<p>However, it's important to know that the programs are not selective. Basically if one can afford to go, one can go. The fancy invitations and the "you have been nominated" are just marketing. </p>
<p>Participating in the programs won't get one admitted to HPYS because the adcoms know that the main selection criterion for the program is being able to afford them. Schools like HPYS are far more impressed by students with the independence and creativity to create their own learning opportunities than by students who participate in pricey packaged ones.</p>
<p>Participating in the programs, however, could impress less selective colleges where being willing to do something academic over the summer would make one stand out in the applicant pool. Consequently, the programs may help one get merit aid at second tier colleges and get into public colleges' honors programs. It also may help one get local opportunities such as internships with city officials or scholarships/awards for students who are interested in careers related to the fields of the conferences.</p>
<p>I too am debating over whether or not I should go. My family and I are taking a trip to New York this summer and later I will be going to Arkansas so I am worried that I will not have enough time if I do this, too. I also don't know how I would raise the money in time. I understand it is a great oppourtunity, but wouldn't you be able to visit the same stuff for less money if you went on your own as opposed to this trip?</p>
<p>These companies are the equivalent of "Who's Who" except they are selling you a multi thousand dollar seminar instead of a book. They sent a bulk mailing to your school. Your principal dumped the package on one of your teachers. Your teacher submitted some names.</p>
<p>You are not a leader just because you went to a summer week with the word "Leadership" in the title. </p>
<p>Want to be a leader? </p>
<p>Read to the blind, work at a camp for children with cancer, volunteer at your local public access TV or Radio, get a job.</p>
<p>If you can afford it, or raise the cost (a thousand dollars or so for the Washington trip?) and you are interested in government, politics, etc, chances are you'll find it very rewarding. It provides a chance to experience Washington with kids your own age and do things you probably wouldn't do on a family vacation. There are seminars where students assume different roles in goverment to handle, say, an impending crisis between two nations. They might meet with journalists at the National Press Club, meet their representatives, etc. There's also plenty of sightseeing. The kids we know who attended really enjoyed it and felt they learned a lot. It certainly wasn't done to impress anyone.</p>
<p>The University of Richmond has a Homeland Security summer program. They teach you about various threats to our nation and home, They teach you to be vigilant and to be a leader if disaster strikes. You get a signed certificate of completion by the Director of Homeland Security. </p>
<p>That's leadership.</p>
<p>Maybe thinking of options might help. Any experience is about enrichment. You could go to the NYLC conference make the most of it and be happy, or go to Greece instead and look at the ruins and make the most of it and be happy. If you have the monetary choice to have the experience why not take it?</p>
<p>My D had the opportunity to attend a NYLC on medicine and did so the summer before her senior year. It opened her eyes to the many different fields of medicine. Since attending she now knows what she would like to be and has not changed her mind since then. Also, she was one of only 4 individuals who was chosen (picked a certain card for this) to scrub up and sit in on an open heart sugery. She got to stand over the womans face and watch a good portion of the sugery. It was pretty cool and an experience she won't forget. :)</p>
<p>The mailouts from them go into our trash can, which also makes me feel a little guilty (sort of like not passing on a chain letter). I am not suggesting they are the Darth Vader of pre college programs and I am sure touring the nation's capitol is a good thing for the young any day of the year and some of the speakers look to be famous. However, the whole tenor of the cover letters bug me because they imply that there is selectivity involved, when it just feels more like the overburdened GC caves into them pressuring the school for names and addresses...ditto the Whos Who thing. (I came from a fairly working class background and did not know this was just a book selling outfit when I got that designation eons ago). What can I say, my GC in my public school back then graduated from Bob Jones. We understood nothing. Our current GC office is not exactly cutting edge either with hundreds of students per counselor and sometimes only a little more than half the student body graduating at all. The NYLC letter we got today also implied we had better "rush" them our check before they filled up etc. I like the way a program like CTY chooses to fill their classes where test scores are a factor and the client can also manipulate factors and express preferences and rank options.</p>
<p>I'm also turned off by their marketing and the way they get their target list from schools. We have to sign or decline a media consent. I guess signing that allows the schools to release "nominee" information to commercial ventures. I don't know, maybe the school really thinks it is an honor. The town paper also publishes a picture and blurb about kids attending, furthering the belief that it's prestigious. No doubt kids can attend these programs and find them valuable but the marketing makes me throw the letters in the bin.</p>
<p>Definitely not prestigious based on who gets the letters. S2 got a one of those invitiations last year. S2 is a good kid but a very average student who's only real ec is football. So it's not as if these letters are going out to only the best and the brightest, though it seems to be marketed that way. The cost was way too much for us and S2 was more interested in football workouts anyway.</p>
<p>youarenumber6 - oh wow, a certificate. what astounding leadership.</p>