Grace Peralta, a Lihue Clubhouse alumni,  was selected as a presenter panelist for the HANOCON Youth Leadership in Non-Profits session, bringing her extensive experience to an important discussion on best practices of youth leadership and local lessons learned. Grace was born and raised on Kauai and graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Communicology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and is currently working toward her master’s degree while teaching undergraduate courses at the University. In addition to her academic endeavors, she has been a longtime leader and advocate for youth within Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii. For 10 years she has assisted BGCH by serving in roles such as alumna, volunteer, intern, Youth Development Specialist, and Kauai Teen Program Specialist.  This summer Grace created and rolled out the “Alaka’i me ke Aloha” leadership program at BGCH Kauai Clubhouses.  The program was created to recruit and engage teen members and start them on a pathway of positive and impactful leadership while planning for their future after they graduate from high school.

Mosner is a 9-year-old with emotional hardships and familial dysfunction. Last school year he had a hard time controlling his anger and he justified all his inappropriate or violent actions based on his peers’ “annoying” or provocative actions. He had a hard time accepting responsibility for his actions and would become frustrated very quickly. He also ended the year with many in-completes and low grades on his report card. Within the past 4 months of mentorship, Mosner has opened up in surprising and impressive ways. Not only does he share his feelings and concerns but does so in a very mature way, drawing connections to deeper issues or making parallels that show he understands his emotions and the benefits of adopting better emotional and mental habits. He has actively begun to change his way of thinking from a self-defeated, negative perspective to an empowering, empathetic positive one in which he has the control. He has used this newfound understanding of his own emotional control to be uplifting in his actions with others, even if they don’t invite such kindness. He has opened his mind to see ways in which he can set a positive tone in his environment, whether at home, school or Club. In starting to do so, has gotten positive results, which have reinforced his new belief that he can control the emotional tone of his world and make it a happy one, no matter the external situation. His understanding of all this has made it joyful and fulfilling to mentor him. His positive feedback and updates about improving grades, improving relationships and enjoyment of life have made me so grateful to have had the opportunity to mentor him.