Leadership Texarkana’s community wide TYTL Program is BACK – and better than ever!
The Reimagined Reboot of LT’s Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Youth (TYTL) program kicked-off on Wednesday, September 25th, with forty-one teens from across the community! After 23 years of offering TYTL in most every format imaginable, LT’s youth program fell by the covid-focused wayside in 2020. Even though a successful program throughout its long history, realities of scheduling had restricted the program to four days during the summer, timing which was a challenge for both students and TYTL leaders.
Given the challenges, the LT Board voted to use the covid pause to engage in zero-based reflection on opportunities to reimagine the program in ways that might address the challenges, while serving the students, the school districts and the community ever better. The initiative gained the needed steam in 2023-24, with Leadership Texarkana, district leaders and students meeting and planning from last September through this past summer, to bring the program to fruition.
Now five years later, all concerned celebrate that TYTL is back on its feet, with excitement on all fronts, framed by the aspirational question, Imagine…if Leadership Texarkana was able to offer a TYTL program to area youth which unleashed their ingenuity and inspired and invited their involvement in creating Texarkana’s best future. The 2024-25 program will run from September to April, with monthly gatherings, and an ambitious curriculum focused on community leadership, including the opportunity to work together through the Strategic Doing process to leave a mark on our community.
The ability to offer the 2024-25 TYTL program is due to the diligence of a stellar CORE TEAM of LT grads*, along with educational leaders and students from LEISD, PGISD, TASD, TISD and TRACE homeschool communities, along with the support of Sponsoring Partner BWI; the Patterson-Troike Foundation has also recently joined the effort as a key partner. THANKS TO ALL!! for being LT’s partners in pursuing Next Gen Community Excellence in Texarkana USA!!
* TYTL CORE TEAM: A Strategic Doing team for guiding planning and overseeing the successful implementation of the TYTL program throughout the 2024-2025 school year.
- Brandy Eldridge, Assistant Director, Leadership Texarkana *
- Ruth Ellen Whitt, Executive Director, Leadership Texarkana **
- Patti O’Bannon, President, Leadership Texarkana Board of Directors *
- Jennifer Cunningham, Dean of UAHT, Texarkana campus (as of 7.1.24) * **
- Julie O’Shaughnessy, Property Manager – representing Home Schooling Network **
- Elodia Witterstaetter, Director, 21st Century Grant, Texarkana, TX ISD
- Lekia Jones, Assistant Principal, Arkansas High School, TASD **
- Gerald (LJ) Swenson, Executive Director, Caddo Area Council, BSA *
- Holly Swecker, Counselor, Liberty-Eylau High School
* Members of Leadership Texarkana Board of Directors
** Trained Str Doing Practitioners
All core team members are graduates of Leadership Texarkana