YLF - Alumni
From Delegate to Mentor: Continue Your Leadership Journey
Graduating from YLF isn't the end of your leadership journey—it's just the beginning.
Every year, YLF alumni return as volunteer staff to mentor new delegates, support program activities, and help create the same life-changing experience they once received. As alumni staff, you'll continue developing your own leadership skills while making a meaningful impact on the next generation of young leaders with disabilities.
The confidence, knowledge, and friendships you gained through YLF can inspire someone else to discover their own voice.
Why Return?
Being an alumni staff member is an opportunity to put your leadership into action.
As part of the YLF team, you'll:
- Mentor and encourage new delegates.
- Share your experiences and lessons learned.
- Build professional skills in leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving.
- Strengthen your confidence as a role model.
- Reconnect with lifelong friends and fellow alumni.
- Continue growing within the YLF community.
- Help create an inclusive, welcoming, and empowering experience for every delegate.
Leadership doesn't end when the program ends—it grows every time you choose to serve others.
Peer Mentorship Matters
One of the most powerful parts of YLF is learning from people who have walked a similar path.
As an alumni staff member, you'll have the opportunity to encourage delegates, answer questions, celebrate accomplishments, and remind delegates that their goals are within reach.
Sometimes the most meaningful leadership happens through a simple conversation, a shared experience, or believing in someone before they believe in themselves.
More than a Volunteer
At YLF, alumni staff are more than volunteers—they are mentors, coaches, facilitators, advocates, and leaders.
Whether you're leading a small group discussion, helping with activities, welcoming new delegates, or simply listening to someone who needs encouragement, your presence helps shape the YLF experience.
Every interaction is an opportunity to inspire confidence and model leadership.
Opportunities to Serve
YLF offers volunteer opportunities throughout the year, including:
- Statewide Youth Leadership Forum
- Regional leadership events
- Alumni gatherings
- Community outreach activities
- Leadership workshops
- Recruitment and outreach events
- Planning committees and special projects
Whether you can volunteer for a single event or throughout the year, there are many ways to stay involved.
A Legacy of Leadership
For more than 30 years, YLF has been shaped by alumni who chose to return and invest in the next generation.
Today's delegates become tomorrow's mentors, and tomorrow's mentors become leaders in their communities, workplaces, colleges, and beyond.
Every time an alumnus returns to YLF, they strengthen a legacy built on leadership, self-advocacy, disability pride, and community.
Ready to Return?
If YLF helped shape your journey, consider helping shape someone else's.
We invite alumni from every generation of YLF to return, reconnect, and continue building a community where every young person with a disability has the opportunity to discover their strengths, find their voice, and lead with confidence.
Your leadership journey isn't over.
The next generation is waiting to learn from you.
Photo Description: Several YLF staff members smile and pose together in the photo booth during the YLF dance. While our staff work tirelessly behind the scenes to create a meaningful experience for delegates, they also take time to celebrate, connect, and enjoy the week together. #JobJoy