This is post 3/5 in a series highlighting students on “The 20-Year Journey” at UrbanPromise. UP's holistic, long-term support of students from Kindergarten to college graduation and beyond is what sets our program apart, and we couldn't empower our students without you. Thank you so much for committing to our students for the long haul!
When you ask a teenage boy to share how he felt during a day at his job, “emotional” might not be the way you’d expect him to respond. But that’s the word that Angel, an 11th grade StreetLeader at UP’s South Boulevard Site, picked to describe a day at work that he'll never forget!
Angel’s journey at UrbanPromise began seven years ago, as a quiet fourth grader who kept to himself most of the time.
“At first I was really shy,” Angel recalls. “But the more I came to UP, the more Ethan and Izzy really hyped me up. They just got to know me better, and they asked me lots of questions. They helped me start to be myself."
Ethan and Izzy, two of UP’s original StreetLeaders, are sometimes described as “legends” among the group of kids who launched UP back in 2013! It's because of their influence that Angel knew he wanted to become a StreetLeader too.
But it’s one thing to be inspired by your heroes, and another thing to learn how to become a hero yourself.
Angel and Ethan at camp in 2014
“At first being a StreetLeader was pretty hard,” Angel admits. “When I started, I still had friends who were younger campers, and it was really hard to separate from them. When you’re a camper you get taken care of, and now you’re the one taking care of others.”
As a new StreetLeader, Angel struggled with managing a classroom and “calming the kids down”. In addition, he was also contending with his own needs — the increased academic demands of high school weighed on him, and he was spending a lot of time making sure his grades were on track.
“Honestly, I don’t think my grades would be close to as good as they are without UP,” Angel says. “Francisco [Angel’s mentor and our UP South Middle School Director] has stayed after with me when I needed help with work and has helped me with lots of projects. If he was not in my life, I feel like my grades would be a lot different. He motivates me.”
As he grew in his role as a StreetLeader, Angel doubled down on his effort to support students in the way that Ethan, Izzy, and Francisco had supported him.
“I focused especially on having one-on-one talks with the campers and checking in,” Angel recalls. “I worked on helping them open up, the way I did.”
But still, Angel wondered if he was actually making a difference as a StreetLeader. How can you really know?
Every February UrbanPromise hosts a contest called “Strength to Love” where students of all ages write and deliver speeches about the people who inspire them. As a student takes the stage, a photo of the person he/she has chosen to honor flashes onto the screen.
Angel showed up to the 2020 Strength to Love speech contest mostly concerned with his own impending performance — he had written a speech about Francisco’s impact in his life that he was excited to share with the audience. He was also prepared to cheer on his campers as they spoke, but he hadn’t given much thought to who each of them might be speaking about.
“I hadn’t read the campers’ speeches, so I didn’t know who they were going to be talking about,” Angel remembers. “And then they [Genesis and Breiny, two elementary school campers] each got up there… and their pictures came up with me.”
Angel was shocked and truly touched. The two girls’ speeches were back-to-back, so he barely had time to process Genesis’s speech before Breiny’s began.
“I honestly got pretty emotional,” he laughs.
The words each young lady spoke reflected the energy and intentionality Angel had poured into their lives… in exactly the ways Ethan and Izzy had once poured into him.
“Angel thinks about campers before himself,” Genesis spoke to the crowd. “For example, every time he sees us, he checks in on us and asks how we are. Angel always comes to talk to us and says hi after a long day at school. I appreciate Angel for going out of his way to make others feel better before himself.”
Breiny's words were equally as meaningful:
“Angel never gives up on helping a camper when a camper is feeling down or just needs to chat. Angel is someone who I look up to because he makes me feel at home. He is a StreetLeader that I would someday like to be!”
Participating in the StreetLeader program has helped Angel improve his grades, given him a vision for college, and connected him to transformational mentor support.
The experience has also helped him realize his power and potential in impacting others. He’s come a long way from the shy fourth grader who first walked through UP’s doors nearly a decade ago!
“Their speeches made me realize how much I had impacted them,” Angel says. “I realize I have helped them grow like the StreetLeaders before me helped me grow. I have found a sense of purpose here, just taking care of these kids. UrbanPromise a place where we watch each other grow, we care for each other, and we get to be our best selves. Without UP I would not be myself.”
If you have ever supported UrbanPromise, then please know that you have supported Angel.
THANK YOU for making "The 20-Year Journey" possible for UrbanPromise students like him. It ends up transforming their own lives... and impacting the lives of so many others, too!
Later in the evening, Angel was able to channel his emotions into his own speech about Francisco. Here is the WINNING SPEECH Angel delivered about the mentor who has made such a difference in his life!