In November 2005, 20 seniors in high school decided to make a difference in the lives of children they have never met. They traveled halfway around the world, leaving their families and friends behind, to serve the kids of India.
YMAD stands for Youth Making a Difference. Every six months two expeditions go to developing countries, and teens go into schools and orphanages to help make a difference in those children’s lives. After the teens return from their expedition they are expected to do a service project in their own community to apply the skills they learned throughout the year and on their expedition. YMAD decided to offer a college expedition for the first time in August. Each expedition lasts about two and a half weeks.
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“It was a life-changing experience for me,” she said. “I saw a lot of things you can’t see here. After retuning home I had something I wanted to pursue more in my community. The relationships I built with not only the individuals in YMAD, but the people over in India, makes me want to get back over there to do more.”
YMAD is designed to help juniors in high school learn service and leadership. The youth begin the leadership process a year before their expedition is set to leave. YMAD teaches these young adults the “seven leadership values” to take with them to learn and grow during the experience.
The seven leadership values consist of integrity, vision, inspiration, courage, creativity, forgiveness and gratitude. By being taught and understanding these values the students on the expedition can take them forth to make a difference in the world.
Eric Clark, 23, from Salt Lake City, went on the most recent expedition and was excited to put the leadership values to work.
“The leadership values put a better definition on the characteristics that the leaders possess,” Clark said. “It’s simple how you can use those characteristics in daily life. It helps build not only yourself in a common cause, but it also helps you lead and serve those around you.”
During the year before the group leaves, each teen has to raise $3,500 on their own. Parents are only allowed to donate up to $500 to their child. Teens also learn how to teach education workshops and hear from guest speakers who are leaders in the community. YMAD is building confident teens into adults before they take their journey to serve the youth in India.
Kate Nielsen went with YMAD in 2009. The process of fundraising took a lot of work, but she said the end result was worth it.
“It wasn’t tough, but it was time consuming,” Nielsen said. “It could get frustrating at times, but if you were organized and planned out how much money you needed and how you were going to get it, made it easier. After you got there and saw what your money and hard work went to, it made you think, ‘Why didn’t you do more?’ When it came to an end, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
YMAD offers an opportunity for students to embark on a journey to leave everything they have behind and serve others. It allows students to have eye-opening experiences.
Brayden Forbes, 24, majoring in biology at the University of Utah, was thrilled to have an opportunity to be a part of it.
“I wanted to go with YMAD,” he said. “When they opened it to college students, I didn’t even think twice, I knew I wanted to go.”
This will be the first time for Forbes to leave the country. He couldn’t be more excited doing it any other way.
“It will be a good eye-opening experience for me,” he said. “I expect to gain a greater appreciation for what we have in America and a greater appreciation for the way people can live with having so little and still maintaining happiness.”
Nefi Alarcon moved to northern India in 2009 for four months with James Baird, who is the co-founder of YMAD. While living there, they had the opportunity to open an orphanage.
“In 2009 we had no idea what to expect,” he said. “The kids were living in low standards. We wanted to give the kids a better place to live. We got an orphanage up and going. It was a neat experience in my life. There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about the girls I helped.”
Alarcon is part of the college group that returned recently. This is his first time going back since he lived there two years ago.
“Two years ago it was James and myself,” Alarcon said. “We didn’t know what to expect, but we have college students prepared to make a difference in the lives of these kids. That’s why I’m going back; having this opportunity is once in a lifetime.”
Besides Baird being a co-founder of YMAD, he is also serving as the program youth director. Baird was a member of the first group to go to India in 2005. He has been part of two full expeditions, lived in India for four months and has been to India five times for YMAD. He is currently a country director leading the group of college students on their expedition to India. He believes helping these kids shows them they are worth something and changes their lives.
“It gives the kids hope,” he said. “It gives them direction, it helps them feel loved. A lot of these kids are orphaned or don’t see their parents and don’t receive affection. It’s amazing to see the change in them and their eyes when they see someone comes to be with them and cares about them. It shows them they are worth something, their goals of being doctors, nurses, teachers or police officers can be achieved.”
YMAD has grown from doing one expedition a year to five in the next eight months. YMAD is unique in the way it teaches the teens how to make a difference in the world. One of YMAD’s main goals is to build future leaders.
“It’s a humbling experience,” Baird said. “It teaches them they can make a difference in someone else’s life, it’s amazing to see the transformation in the teens. They come in doe-eyed high school students and leave adults. After they come back, there’s serious growth inside of them. They appreciate life more, they get desire to serve people. The youth today are going to make a difference in the future, the only way to change what’s going on in the present is to develop the youth for the future.”
