For the past six weeks, I have undertaken two of the most amazing, life-changing adventures of my life: Firstly, I traveled abroad for the very first time! Secondly, I organized and hosted a major PRIDE event and celebration. I will be forever grateful to the Laidlaw foundation for this experience. This document serves as my comprehensive reflection:

As a second year member of the Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Program, I had the honor to dedicate my Summer 2023 Leadership-in-Action project to the wonderful Youth Work Ireland. This organization, as stated on their website, leads with a mission to "work together with [their] Member Youth Services to inspire, educate, and empower all young people." To put their scope into perspective, Youth Work Ireland serves a whopping 76,000 young individuals every week across Ireland. 

From my first arrival at their Dublin, Ireland office, I was immediately in admiration of Youth Work Ireland's care for their community, their sustainable organization, and their commitment to care deeply for their team members and their ongoing projects. At all times, I felt welcomed, engaged, and excited to be a contributor on the team.

In addition to their multitude of services, Youth Work Ireland has the distinct honor to host an annual PRIDE celebration. This event allows the organization too invite some of their member youth to travel to Dublin and celebrate the PRIDE parade. Hosted at their central office, the celebration includes food, refreshments, ice cream, spaces for art, murals for photos, and DJs for music! Finally, the event concludes with the Youth Work Ireland team marching in the Dublin PRIDE parade. I was honored to lead our group in this parade (as pictured above). 

I could say many amazing things about this organization, and I will start with a sincere shout-out of gratitude to my supervisor, Gina Halpin. Gina taught me invaluable wisdom about leadership and grass-roots organizing, and I will takes these lessons with me for the rest of my life. 

As an aspiring advocate and community organizer myself, Youth Work Ireland demonstrated a beautiful example of the possibilities of coalition organizing and grass-roots networks. Especially in such an urgent time for organizing within the LGBTQ+ community, Youth Work Ireland's team accomplished this monumental task with compassion, grace, and a strong commitment to the youth they serve. 

On a personal note, I have been honored to participate in my first ever PRIDE event under the care of Youth Work Ireland. As both a leader and an evolving human, Youth Work Ireland created a safe space for me to spread my wings, and I am beyond grateful that I got to assist in creating this safe space for 700+ youth as well. 

I can confidently declare that my time in Dublin, Ireland, and my contributions to the PRIDE 2023 celebrations, will be one of the most transformative accomplishments of my life. I have grown as a leader, as a team member, as an advocate, and as a human. I felt cared for, and I feel fulfilled by the care and love that I got to pour into the youth community. 

Thus, I am left with one final question of reflection: Going forward, what kind of leader do I want to be?  

My time at Youth Work Ireland has given me the answer.

More than anything, I desire to be a leader who undertakes the following three actions:

1) A leader that from day one invests heavily in their team's community environment and their team's understanding of their work expectations. With a strong framework of community norms and project needs outlined from the team's inception, a leader can operate extremely effectively and intentionally. 

*As a quick note, it is also important to post these norms and goals where they can be easily accessible to the entire team. This will significantly aid any later efforts to re-organize, re-prioritize, or problem solve. 

2) A leader that prioritizes community care, compassion, empathy, ethical projects, informed research, and communication as their core principles. Within this umbrella term of community care, a leader should create a safe space for team members to ask questions, make mistakes, express creative thoughts, and speak up for their personal needs. 

3) A leader that recognizes and celebrates the work of their team while maintaining a clear focus on the overall goals. With a transparent team structure, system of communication, and definition of community norms/ethics, a leader can foster a team that gets stuff done while affirming every milestone along the way. 

I am excited to go forward as a leader that feels empowered to care for myself, for my team, and for my larger community. There is a substantial amount of work to be done on the path towards queer liberation, and I am both anxious and eager to keep it moving. For now, I will affirm and celebrate the excitement and joy of a major accomplishment: PRIDE! Thank you Youth Work Ireland for protecting queer joy- I will be forever grateful. 

I also hope to express my gratitude to the Center for Research and Fellowships at Georgetown University, to my advisor Colleen Dougherty, and to my Laidlaw cohort peers that inspire me every day. I likewise express my appreciation to two past Tufts Laidlaw scholars, Abbey and Andra. After we met at the Laidlaw conference, they helped get me connected to Youth Work Ireland! Finally, I end with another round of applause for Youth Work Ireland, for all of the people that made PRIDE possible, and for the Laidlaw foundation.

There is great joy to be find in the pursuit of justice and change, and I am excited to experience it all.