25 Years of Young Storytellers
Story Art by: Holly Myer, Christine Jung Lew, Jaylene Benggon Chung, Liviera Lim, and Alvin Oei
It’s our 25th anniversary! We’ve had an amazing 25 years of raising the voices of young people, and we’re so grateful for all those that helped us along the way. You can celebrate with us and support the next 25 years in three ways:
Make a donation! We’re deepening our work in Los Angeles, building toolkits, and growing our team, and we need your help. We rely on donations from people like you to do what we do.
Volunteer this school year — and recruit a friend to join you. Volunteers are essential to the success of our programs. Sign up to get trained and placed for the fall here.
Share your story. We want to hear stories from alums, volunteers, donors, school partners, family members, and supporters from the past 25 years. Send us your photos, too! Use the form below.
Some of these stories may be used to commemorate our anniversary on this page, on social media, or at Biggest Show (our annual fundraiser and celebration in October)!
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““Use this special opportunity to develop your voice. You have a story that can only be told by you, so share that with the world.””
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““My time with the YSF has been one of the most important experiences of my life. Thanks to this experience, I was able to develop a similar program in Brazil and expand the impact of the Script-to-Stage program to hundreds of children and volunteers overseas.””
““Storytelling is important because it helps people understand that they are not the only one that feel a certain way about things. That the human experience is a shared one and that no one is ever really alone in this.””
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““HAVE FUN! Young Storytellers is your time to write about whatever is bubbling up in your imagination and we want to help you bring those dreams to LIFE onstage!””
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”One experience I had was at the young movie maker program where I discovered how to be innovated in a short amount of time.””
““Cherish the relationship you develop with your mentor because it can make for a life time connection with this beautiful organization.””
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“When I looked over at my writer while her story was being acted out, her eyes were so big - so full of pride. She wrote me a note after to tell me that she wants to be a writer now and that she will always remember me. Brought tears to my eyes.””
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““Anything is possible, dream big and have fun!””
““It makes me a happy human to serve and be a part of this extraordinary organization with the best and kindest people on the planet.””
““I believe it definitely helped me explore my identity. I was bullied in elementary school but I was always in love with writing so when I was picked to do the program, it became an outlet for me to write my experiences.””
““I believe that storytelling is the most important vehicle for generating empathy and understanding. In times of immense divide in the broader world, storytelling can act as an important bridge to help people understand experiences and individuals who are different from them. It is a deeply humanizing act to share a story with others.””
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When the kids found out we were being sponsored by The Dodgers early on, they were all so excited. They couldn’t wait to go to the game and have a real life Dodger Alumni in their Big Show! One of our girls actually cried tears of joy when we told the group! This particular semester was very special to all of us.”
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““Young Storytellers helped me become a better writer and they made me more creative.”
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““My son hates writing. I never thought I’d see the day he embraced it in a somewhat therapeutic way.””
