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Ally Baker singing on the mic in front of a croud of kids at a Youth Frontiers retreat.
January 10, 2019

How I found — and am still finding — my purpose

I remember a specific conversation I had with my dad when I was a senior in high school. “I can’t wait to find out what my college major will be,” I said. “I can’t wait to know what I am supposed to do.” Supposed to do. That language perplexes me now.

Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Well, I have no recollection of the day I was born, but I have spent much of my life waiting for the second day to come, including the day I had that conversation with my dad. As I thought ahead to college, I remember feeling powerless, like my purpose was pre-determined. There was a correct answer for my own life and I had to find that correct answer.

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January 10, 2019

I remember a student named Kelsey

At Youth Frontiers, it’s our mission to positively impact school communities through our retreats. One of the more wonderful parts of our job is that the same students we reach often impact us in turn. For our staff, these students and their stories are unforgettable. In this series, we remember them.

We’re taking a short break for the holidays. We’ll be back on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. See you in the new year!

This year, on The Character Movement, we are trying something new. We’ll be delving into one of our retreat values each month, examining it on our blog and in our Character Challenges. This month’s theme is leadership.

December 13, 2018

Highlights From Our 10th-Annual Ethical Leadership Luncheon

For ten years, Youth Frontiers has hosted its Ethical Leadership Luncheon (ELL), an event that attracts more than 600 of Minnesota’s brightest leaders to discuss fostering character in our communities today and building the next generation of ethical leaders. Last Tuesday, Hubert Joly, Best Buy Chairman and CEO, shared his insights on leading with character. Here are three highlights from the event:READ MORE

December 12, 2018

A Donor’s Perspective on Leadership and Youth Frontiers

The following content is taken from an interview with Ann Miller, 100th Anniversary Project Manager at Liberty Diversified International and long-time supporter of Youth Frontiers. 

How did you first connect with Youth Frontiers?

We’ve been supporting YF for, gosh, I don’t even know how many years. I don’t know exactly how my parents, Mike and Linda Fiterman, found the Youth Frontiers mission, but they’ve believed in it a long time. I got more involved in it through my career at Liberty Diversified International (LDI), and my daughter’s been connected through living exactly what they do. And so even though all three generations of our family are highly energized and engaged with Youth Frontiers’ mission, I think we are engaged for different reasons. In the last five years, we’ve really put that partnership on steroids because we think that it’s needed more now than ever.

For us, it’s all about leadership and it’s about legacy. And the leadership piece is how do we create stronger leaders not only at LDI, our company, but how do we create stronger future leaders? And what better way to create that legacy than with kids. And when we thought about how do we create this lasting legacy of leadership we knew Youth Frontiers was just a super partner for us.

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“There’s coffee in that nebula,” said Captain Kathryn Janeway.
December 6, 2018

Star Trek Taught Me How to Lead

My favorite Star Trek quote comes from Captain Jean-Luc Picard: “The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth. It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based.” I love that quote because it speaks to me in the beautiful language of absolutes. There is a truth, and there is a lie. There is a right, and there is a wrong. There is a success, and there is a failure. It’s simple, it’s clear, it’s aspirational and it is achievable. Picard led his team with the absolute and unshakeable idea that as long as you do the right thing, you will be a great leader and your people will follow you. This sentiment has guided much of my early life and had a pretty definite, if at times misguided, impact on my path to leadership.

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Christy and her daughter on a hiking trip
November 29, 2018

How I talk about respect with my daughter

The following content is taken from an interview with Christy Lund, Youth Frontiers Donor Relations Manager — Minnesota. 

What do you think respect is?

I think respect has to do with demonstrating to somebody that they deserve to be treated with dignity, with honor, with care. It’s also a way that a person chooses to interact with something. We show respect to the environment or we don’t. We show respect to materials around us or we don’t.

So we can act in such a way that demonstrates those characteristics. And therefore we do something with respect or regard, or we do something without respect — and obviously degrees in between.

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