Youth Summit strives to help teens overcome obstacles
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers SALUTE—Grace Brethren High School sophomore Kristi Courley, 15, participates in the Icebreakers sessions hosted by keynote speaker Scott Greenberg during the Simi Valley Youth Summit at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center last week.

More than 130 teens from six high schools gathered last week at Rancho Santa Susana Community Center for the fifth annual Youth Summit, sponsored by the Simi Valley Youth Council.

The summit’s theme, “Overcoming Obstacles,” was appropriate, said youth council president Kyle Bilharz, because it’s designed to inspire teens and give them positive motivation.

“There’s so much stress on kids these days,” said the Royal High School junior. “I’m trying to find ways to free that stress and this is one of the ways.”

The all-day summit began with motivational speaker Scott Greenberg telling the students of the enormous obstacle he faced when he was about their age. While attending film school at a prestigious New York university, Greenberg was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

“I’m here to tell you the truth,” he told the teens. “The truth is every one of you will get your cancer, all of you.”

FOLLOW THE LEADER— Royal High School freshman Lexi Gray, 15, participates in exercises to break the ice at the Simi Valley “Overcoming Obstacles” Youth Summit last week.

Greenberg explained they’d face in life some kind of huge obstacle— whether it’s physical or verbal abuse, drug or alcohol addiction or something else.

“There’s no avoiding obstacles; there’s no avoiding adversity,” he said. “What matters is how you react.”

He also told them they have the power, talent and strength to overcome what life will throw their way.

“If we know how strong we are, our problems won’t scare us as much,” Greenberg said.

The messages resonated with Tiffany Alexander, who’s attended the summit twice before. She said this one was the best, because she learned more than in previous years.

“It was really, really fun and interesting,” said the 18-year-old Simi Valley High School senior.

She knows teenagers who are taking or have taken drugs, and she plans to use the information from the summit to help them.

The message and method used by improv group Straight Up Reality connected with Matthew Murray, a sophomore at Royal High School.

Straight Up is sponsored by Ventura County Limits, a partnership of colleges, universities, high schools, law enforcement and city and county governments, which uses theater and improvisational techniques to get teenagers and young adults to think about and discuss underage and binge drinking.

“I think teenagers are more likely to listen, because you don’t feel like you’re being lectured to,” Murray said of the group. “Nothing’s more irritating than hearing the same lecture over and over. . . . They made us feel involved and respected.”

Gloria Garcia was also impressed with the theatrical group.

“Everything was relative to how I felt,” said the Simi Valley High School junior.

Teenagers are pressured into drinking by the media and by watching other teens indulge, she said. The summit taught her not to fall victim to peer pressure and media hype.

“It’s possible to have fun without drinking, because everyone (at the summit) was having fun and we were sober,” she said.

At lunchtime, the teens were joined by officials from the school board, park district, city departments and the city council and were given topics to discuss.

“I was really blown away by the quality of the kids and the commitment to this program and the questions they were asking,” said Mayor Pro Tem Glen Becerra of the teens.

Councilmember Michelle Foster was also impressed by the teens she had lunch with.

“Teens are a great group of people who see things in a way that we may have lost sight of,” Foster said. “These are kids that don’t sit back and complain. They create what they want to do.”