Teen Talk
The Impact of a Youth Group
By Stephanie Courtois
As the summer is closing, fall is making its way out. School is part of the everyday routine and youth groups are starting up for the New Year. One in particular has caught my interest and I have been a member ever since I met the age requirement. B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, more commonly known as BBYO, is my youth group that I am deeply involved with.
On the first day of my freshman year, I was a newbie. I had just moved from upstate New York and didn’t know a soul. I was nervous, insecure and in hope of being accepted as any freshman would want. As the day went by, I didn’t feel high school was right for me, but just before lunch, as I had not met anyone to sit with yet, I met a girl who forever changed my high school experience. She invited me to sit with her and her friends who told me about a Jewish youth organization called BBYO. I learned of all the events I was able to attend and the leadership opportunities I could partake in. After that lunch period, I was hooked and made arrangements to attend my first youth group meeting.
On that Thursday evening, I met the members and discovered all these people who were kind and accepting of me – no questions asked. The program they had planned was an “undernight.” Since the meeting was at a JCC, we couldn’t sleep over, so we slept “under” meaning we went home at the end of the night. There was food, games and laughter. I felt at ease, a feeling which I had not felt at school. I recognized some faces of the members and began to meet people through them little by little. If it weren’t for BBYO, my high school experience would never have been the same.
Throughout the years, BBYO has held numerous conventions on a chapter, regional and international level. The structure of BBYO makes me think of a spider web. The most inward thread is one chapter, the people that you see every week. The secondary threads above are all the chapters in region which ranges to about ten or so chapters. The next layer is international, which contains all the regions in the world. In the end, we are part of one, big Jewish family.
Today, I am a junior at Wellington High School who has made connections and bonds of sisterhood that are unbreakable. BBYO has taught me leadership skills and what it means to be part of something bigger than myself. These girls that I see every Thursday are my sisters, the ones that I never had; for I am an only child. I am very fortunate to have found an organization like this and I hope that other teens are as lucky as I am.
Stephanie Courtois is a junior at Wellington High School. She is involved in tae kwon do, French, National and Chemistry Honor Societies, and is the news editor for the school newspaper. She loves journalism and aspires to work for a magazine someday.