For a lot of our Leadership Lab youth, last weekend was a first — either the first time leaving for an overnight trip or the first time trading their neighborhood for open sky that LA couldn't even compete with. Regardless an adventure was promised for their Lake Arrowhead Retreat. Twenty young people from South and East Los Angeles loaded up and headed to the mountains of Lake Arrowhead, and for many of them, the drive itself was already new territory.
The overnight trip has become a signature moment in the Leadership Lab year — and for good reason. Away from the noise and pressures that come with being young in the city, youth get something rare: space. Space to actually get to know each other. Space to step back from the anxiety that follows them through the school year. The mountains have a way of making those pressures feel smaller, even if only for a weekend. But this wasn't just a getaway. The trip gave our youth a chance to look ahead — to sit with the question of what they actually want to accomplish this programmatic year and start putting shape to it. The conversations that happen when you're surrounded by mountains and away from screens tend to go deeper than the ones squeezed into a program session. Those conversations are the foundation on which the rest of the year is built.
That drive for connection showed up in the small moments too. Youth who were up past midnight, talking, laughing, connecting, still managed to pull themselves out of bed at 5am just to watch the sunrise. Nobody asked them to. Nobody had to. They just knew it was worth it, and they made it happen. There’s something about watching the sun come up over the mountains with people you just bonded with the night before; it’s the kind of moment that sticks with you.
That’s who these young people are. They’re driven. They make time for what matters to them, whether that’s a sunrise at 5am or the goals they set for the year ahead. They show up with energy, with intention, and with a genuine care for one another. That’s not something you can teach in a program session. That’s character. And that’s exactly why we’re proud to call them our young leaders. The mountains just gave us a chance to see it up close and reminded us why we do this work.
