By Gloria A. Quive, YES 2014-2015, Mozambique, hosted by AFS in Richfield, WA

Alumni from nine YES countries attended the YES Alumni Advocacy Workshop from August 22-26, 2016. Forty alumni from India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania and Thailand gathered in Manila, Philippines to learn how to become good advocates for social change. The workshop was such a great opportunity to empower YES Alumni! 

We attended sessions on Social Entrepreneurship, Community Health, Environment, Elections/Voting and Global Citizenship and explored the topics with expert speakers in each session. The workshop would not have been the same without them, because I learned a lot from their experiences in those fields.

During our time in the Philippines, we also visited historical places like The National Museum and Luneta Park. It was great to learn a little bit about Manila, the people and the culture. To close the workshop, we had a Cultural Night and each country had a chance to give a presentation. It was awesome because we got to know some cultural dances, music and fun facts about other countries, and learned we have a lot of talented alumni!

During the workshop, I learned that, as alumni, we are already strong, but we can become even stronger if we work together and are united in making a difference in our communities by being that change. We can do that by implementing projects that positively impact our communities.

The workshop was even better than I expected! I'm grateful that I got to be a participant because it was great to get to know other changemakers. Honestly, one of the most inpirational parts of the workshop was simply hearing others' stories and learning from them!

I would like to thank everyone who made this workshop possible and successful. I thank the YES program; the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational Affairs; and  AFS Intercultural Programs Philippines for the initiative and for the warm welcome. Thank you volunteers and all facilitators for the awesome job!