Hancock Resource Center
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Past Success >
      • 2019 Annual Report
  • Programs
    • Veterans Services
    • Homelessness Solutions
    • Mortgage Delinquency & Foreclosure
    • Homebuyer Counseling
    • Navigator Program
    • Transitional Housing for Domestic Violence Survivors
    • Home Rehab & Repair
    • HYRE: Hancock Youth Ready for Employment
    • Community Education
    • Hancock Youth Leadership Academy
    • Community Development
  • Calendar
  • Partners
  • DONATE
  • Latest News
  • Work With HRC
    • Available Positions
    • Volunteer Opportunities
  • Adulting Day 2023
  • Hancock County Community Service Guide
Picture

Hancock Youth Leadership Academy graduates 22 junior high leaders

8/3/2020

 
Picture
For Immediate Release:
July 30, 2020
 
The Hancock Youth Leadership Academy (HYLA) held its final session and graduated its ninth class of junior high students on Wednesday, July, 22nd at the Longfellow Civic Center. The final session and graduation was sponsored by Keesler Federal Credit Union and was the culmination of a program that began in January and was temporarily suspended due to COVID-19. Twenty-two bright young students displaying strong leadership potential from all four area middle schools were chosen to participate in the program. Over the course of the last five months, HYLA students engaged in a series of sessions that developed and strengthened their self-awareness and leadership styles, exposed them to local government and county and municipal administration to promote civic engagement, increased their awareness of the importance of small business and industry to the health of the community, and demonstrated the role of the arts in sustaining a community’s culture. 
 
HYLA students began the day at the Bay St. Louis Train Depot and the Mardi Gras Museum where costumes from the Krewe of Nereids are displayed.  Mary Ann Pucheu, a current Officer of the Krewe, was on hand to explain the history behind the organization and the impact that it has on the local economy.
 
Next, the students took a walking tour of the Depot District which ended at Ruth’s Roots, the community garden, created by former Youth Court Judge Elise Deano. The garden was created to help serve the community’s youth through enrichment, but is now truly a community treasure.  Local artists have made the garden quite vibrant with painted murals and fence posts.  Students were surprised to see chickens, rabbits and flowers, plants and herbs being grown in raised “salad tables”.  The garden also is home to two hives of honeybees, a butterfly habitat, two worm farms, as well as a Koi pond.  Students were then treated to a delicious lunch at Purple Banana.
 
Students then participated in several activities which provided the springboard to launch the students from the program, as they are now set to enter high school as young leaders with cultural sensitivity and a firm understanding of their community’s assets and resources.
 
The Hancock Youth Leadership Academy is the first county-wide youth leadership program in Hancock County.  HYLA extends sincere appreciation to the generous sponsors of the 2020 program:  Accelerated Physical Therapy, AVL,  (Alexander, Van Loon, Sloan, Levens & Favre),  Brehm Bell, Attorney at Law,      James J. Chiniche, P.A., JP Compretta, DAK Americas, Diamondhead Dental Clinic, Edmond Fahey Funeral Home,  Bert Keel, Jr. DMD,  Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, HL Raymond Properties, JEM, LLC, Keesler Federal Credit Union, Mike Meyers (State Farm Agent), John McDonald Realty, Representative Jay McKnight, Mississippi Power Assoc., The Mystic Krewe of the Seahorse, Pet Haven Veterinary Hospital, Celeste and Robert Rosamond Family Foundation, Silver Slipper Casino, Southgroup Insurance Services, Southern Printing & Silkscreening,  Dean and Marilene Taylor, Tellus Self Storage, Chris and Becky Trapani, Triton Systems, Inc,  Waveland Walmart,  Bay Waveland Middle School, Hancock Middle School, Our Lady Academy, and Saint Stanislaus.
 
Picture:  front row: (left to right)  Brennan Acosta (B/W Middle), Amelia Loper (Hancock Middle), Cadence Lyrock (B/W Middle), Leah Acosta (B/W Middle), Faith Ponte (OLA), Hannah Lagasse (B/W Middle), Katie Favre (OLA), Mallory Capo (OLA), Parker Saucier (St. Stanislaus).
Back row:  Alex Ladner (Hancock Middle), Jeffrey Hopgood (Hancock Middle), Mia Martial (Hancock), Brooklen Bourgeois (OLA), Kiara Johnson (B/W Middle), William Ascherl (St. Stanislaus).
 
Not pictured:  Nathan Andrews (Hancock Middle), Cole Bryant (St. Stanislaus), Jackson Grimes (Hancock Middle), Kody Grob (Hancock Middle), Halee Oster (Hancock Middle), Amelia Power (B/W Middle).
 
For more information, please contact Rhonda Rhodes at 228-463-8887.
 

    Maintained by:
    HRC Staff

    To contact us click here.

    Categories

    All
    Announcements
    Housing Solutions
    HRC Community Education Classes
    HRC Community Events
    HYLA High School Program
    HYLA Junior High School Program
    HYPE
    Veteran Services

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Past Success >
      • 2019 Annual Report
  • Programs
    • Veterans Services
    • Homelessness Solutions
    • Mortgage Delinquency & Foreclosure
    • Homebuyer Counseling
    • Navigator Program
    • Transitional Housing for Domestic Violence Survivors
    • Home Rehab & Repair
    • HYRE: Hancock Youth Ready for Employment
    • Community Education
    • Hancock Youth Leadership Academy
    • Community Development
  • Calendar
  • Partners
  • DONATE
  • Latest News
  • Work With HRC
    • Available Positions
    • Volunteer Opportunities
  • Adulting Day 2023
  • Hancock County Community Service Guide