Checking in on YEOC: The May session
“The building bridges program’s primary goal is to assimilate prospective workers into a more international cultural body, and to succinctly mend the gap between differing generations of workers. This program will not only expand the worker’s knowledge of various cultures, but will also elevate their opportunity to grow through art and culture, to allow for a more well-rounded workforce.”
The quote above is the mission statement of Building Bridges, a social program aimed to engage millennials in the workplace. On their website, interested clients can find more information regarding future activities, daily reads and program benefits. Here’s the thing: Building Bridges does not exist… at least not yet. The organization is the winning creation of a team of YEOC students participating in the YEOC Case Competition Challenge. With Amazon Kindle Fires at stake, the competing student teams (18 in total) were tasked with developing a one page proposal describing their millennial workplace engagement plan and presenting for 10 minutes in front of a panel of business and community leaders. After successfully wowing the judges with their carefully designed website, brochure and presentation, Building Bridges was declared victorious at the YEOC End of Year Celebration in the HUB Ballroom. The announcement was just one of the many highpoints of the evening.
At the celebration, five $2,000 YEOC Senior Scholarships were awarded to students attending UW in the fall. Attendees also heard remarks from Keynote speaker Carlos Gutierrez, partner at EY, and student speaker (and future Foster student) Ashlyn Thomas.
Since YEOC is a college-prep program, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention what a few of the YEOC seniors have in store after graduation. Some highlights:
- 50 of the 79 seniors who applied to UW were accepted for a 63% acceptance rate –higher than the UW’s acceptance rate of 55%
- Eight YEOC seniors were admitted to the Foster Freshman Direct program
- Schools that YEOC seniors will be attending include: University of Washington, Washington State University, Evergreen College, Babson College, Northeastern University, Hawaii Pacific University, University of Southern California and the University of Oregon
With stats like these, YEOC students are a true testament that anything is possible. Take part in the celebration by watching the end of the year compilation video and checking out some of the photos below:
