Make Difference in Your Community
ReThink Service is a 12 week virtual fellowship program for teens who are passionate about servingtheir community. Youth fellows will have an opportunity to design their very own community service project and lead their peers to better the communities in which they reside.
Benefits:
- Represent your school
- Prepare for college and career
- Earn a stipend of $200 with successful completion
- Boost your resume with a fellowship experience
- Build leadership & 21st century skills
- Gain a personal mentor to help you plan your project
- Become a social change agent
- Expand your network and learn from communityleaders
Eligibility Criteria:
- Enrolled as a High School Junior at an Alachua County HighSchool
- Able to spend a minimum of 3 hrsper week dedicated to meetingwith assigned mentor and otherprogram activities
2022
2022 reThink Service Program Fellows Youth Service Day of America Service Projects
ReThink Service is a 12 week virtual fellowship program for teens who are passionate about serving their community. Youth fellows have designed their very own community service projects with a goal to lead their peers to better the communities in which they reside.
Hannah will have her service project on April 29th from 3-6 at the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) Her service project is delivering and hosting an arts and crafts event at the CAC. With the help of volunteers, Hannah hopes to compose several gift boxes with materials that children can play with. The gift boxes will be pre-made, with the help of volunteers, and Hannah will deliver these on April 29th.
Jibril will have his service project on April 30th via Zoom at 2 p.m. His service project is to inform Middle School students, specifically 6th and 7th Black and Latinx students about advanced courses/programs that are offered in High Schools. His goal is to address the disparity that he sees in his IB/Advanced courses and increase minority representation–especially in his high school. His presentation will consist of students, guidance counselors, and guest speakers that will inform students about these opportunities.
Saika will have her service project on April 29th Her service project is leading a book drive for Alachua Regional Juvenile Detention Center and The Child Advocacy Center. She is hoping to have books, journals, notebooks, and coloring books donated at Gainesville High School’s Main office and Coffee Culture from April 1st to April 25th. She will also be collecting letters for the youth at the Alachua Regional Juvenile Detention Center and The Child Advocacy Center.
Sophia will have service project on April 30th from 10-12 Sophia is the founder of BEING, an organization that allows female-identifying adolescents to embrace their inner worth by promoting body positivity.The first community event will be on April 30th from 10-12 at Magnolia Parke and will include free yoga, mosaic making, journaling, and guest speakers!
Rachel will have her service project on April 30th & May 1st from 11-3 at the Civic Media Center (April 30th) and Coffee Culture (May 1st), respectively Her service project is to educate the youth and emerging adults about clinical services, and reproductive health. There will also be free goodies and wellness supplies given at this event!
Phoenix will have his service project on May 1st time TBD His goal is to spread awareness on the harmful nature of House Bill 1557, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, in the state of Florida. He wants to gather participants to come together and learn about the negative effects that this Bill will have on the youth. He will do so by gathering a maximum of 10 people to paint the wall on 34th street.
ReThink Service Fellowship Program Launched For Second Year
The Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce and LYFEhouse, Inc. launched their second-year Rethink Service Fellowship program.
Rethink Service is a twelve-week fellowship program that provides high school students the opportunity to complete a leadership curriculum to develop students’ leadership capacity and empower them to be community change agents. In addition, students are paired with a mentor who helps them develop and implement their community service projects. The program was created for high schoolers passionate about serving the community in an effort to provide them with the resources and tools necessary to impact local change, which were not fully available to them prior. Each student, also known as a fellow, is given the chance to choose their project topic and add their own creative touch to it. After project topics are chosen, the fellows are then connected with mentors from the business community whose skills best match each topic.
After the fellows have completed their projects, they will present them to the public on one of the three Global Youth Service Days: April 22, April 30 or May 1. Global Youth Service Days are annual events that gather volunteers from ages 5 to 25 to work together for civic benefit. They are the largest youth civic action and service events in the world.
There are six fellows participating in the program this year with topics ranging from education to civil rights. This year’s fellows include 10th-grader Rachel Xu from Eastside High School, 10th-grader Saika Chowdhury from Gainesville High School, 11th-grader Sophia Vernon from Buchholz High School, 11th-grader Phoenix Propes from Loften High School, 10th-grader Jibril Bachu from Eastside High School and 11th-grader Hannah Streeter-De Taboada from Oak Hall School. Their mentors are Stephanie Freas, Tiffany Williams-Propes, Dekova Batey, Laura Bialeck, and Dulce Diaz Roa.
2021
Meet The 2021 Fellows
The Chamber and LYFEhouse are excited for a second successful year of the Rethink Service fellowship program, and they look forward to seeing the connections between fellows and mentors, as well as the benefits they will build throughout the community.
Hawthorne Middle/High School’s Siaderiel hosted an event at the Wrap Shack in Hawthorne on Friday, April 23, to raise awareness and funds to support mental health in teens. Siaderiel recruited 16 of her peers to assist her in this three-hour community event.
Santa Fe High School’s Alisha implemented the “Pot a Plant” event. This service project was a fun, safe and educational morning for children, held at the Worthington Springs Community Center in the City of Alachua on Saturday, April 24. For this two-hour event, Alisha enlisted the aid of Lowe’s and Home Depot, who donated supplies.
Hawthorne Middle/High School’s Ash and Liadin are working to decrease the number of stray cats in the Waldo community. For their service project, the pair created a two-hour karaoke event at the Waldo Community Center on Saturday, April 24 to raise funds to provide medical attention, buy food and toys and raise awareness of the issue.
