Ever since she was a kid, freshman Saanj Rao has enjoyed attending city recreational events. So when one of her friends brought up an opportunity to join the Cupertino Youth Activity Board, she saw it as a nice way to give other people the same experiences she had.
“I have a strong sense of community and leadership,” Rao said. “It’s always nice to come and plan these events for teens and see so many people from school and from outside that I know enjoying these events and hanging out with their friends. I think that’s my biggest goal: to help people feel included and to help people have a good time outside for free.”
The Cupertino Youth Activity Board, or YAB, aims to build community among city youth through events, including hackathons, social events and teen resource fairs. They do everything from book venues to find volunteers to make promos, all with the goal of creating an inviting space for teens. In fact, sophomore Tashvi Bansal says one of the reasons she enjoyed HackCupertino, the annual Cupertino hackathon, was due to its welcoming environment.
“HackCupertino was my first ever hackathon,” Bansal said. “It was a super fun experience and it made me realize that this is something I want to do again. They had lots of helpers to help you with coding and whatnot, so that was also a really nice part of it. It made it really open for beginners and people who had never done a hackathon before, like myself.”
Now that she is part of the YAB public relations team, Bansal looks forward to being on the other side of this year’s HackCupertino because of how rewarding it has been to see other teenagers enjoy YAB’s events. Rao agrees that although planning major events like HackCupertino takes months of work, the payoff is worth it.
“Being at the event, as you see everything coming together and helping people with the events and watching all these people struggling to code, you can kind of just sit back and see how much work you’ve put in and see how well it comes together,” Rao said. “And it’s also a really fun experience to bond because it is a 13 hour hackathon overnight, so you can really see and connect with the other YAB members.”
Ensuring these events run smoothly takes a lot of maturity that YAB advisor Robert Kaufman says many people presume teens don’t have. However, through events like the Spelling Bee, which was run by YAB and the Teen Commission for the first time this January, he has found the team to be dedicated, professional and capable of multitasking.
“Personally, I’m just impressed with them all the time,” Kaufman said. “They make up a majority of my event staff at this point, and I just know I can trust in them. They’re hungry to prove themselves but also build the foundation that they need for their future.”
Kaufman hopes the YAB members can build a sense of creativity and agency that they’ll carry forward throughout their lives.
“I’m used to working with adults and adults have maybe rigid outlooks on life or certain things,” Kaufman said. “I think what’s fun about working with teens is there’s a lot of optimism still. They’re not quite jaded yet. There’s not as much hesitation to do certain things. The sky’s the limit pretty much when it comes to ideas or just getting stuff done.”
Rao and Bansal have both found that YAB expanded their horizons and helped them grow as people, especially in terms of communication, work ethic and professionalism. Bansal adds that prior to joining YAB, she didn’t know much about local government or how to get involved, so joining allowed her to engage more with the larger community.
“Before it was like an ocean that I had to cross to see that whatever I do can make an impact on those around me,” Bansal said. “But now I see that it’s not. It’s not as intimidating as it used to be. The Youth Activity Board is the perfect way for me, for all teens, to get into contact with their local government and make a difference.”
