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The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I took this step when I decided to be a part of the YCDI team and my journey has been nothing but great. I was given the opportunity along with Deandrew Moore, to attend the Collision conference in Toronto, Canada. It is the fastest growing tech conference in the world. This trip to Canada, was in fact my first time travelling abroad and also my first time on a plane. Being away from Jamaica and experiencing a different culture was fascinating and really exciting. We tried different food, did a little touring and experienced the cold climate of Canada. I must say our trip wouldn't have been as great without Jason Scott(big bro) as our chaperone, who ensured we had a good time while guiding us throughout the conference. Keisha Francis(big sis) the Secretary of Micheal Thompson(the deputy Mayor of Toronto) also contributed greatly to our experience as she took care of us throughout the conference and outside as well. The journey of the conference has been an eye opener, I was able to network with progressive people from a different culture. I was also able to interact with companies that have developed extraordinary technologies and programs. Links were made with different organizations that will benefit both YCDI and myself. From the sessions I attended, there were two that stood out the most and left an impact. They were "re-imagining your legacy: Transforming the Hilton brand for a new era" and "In defense of the 'Jack of all trades' ". The first, touched on some really salient points that detailed how to stay relevant as customer needs change frequently. The second impacted personally as it was geared towards persons who are interested in many areas, but are often times told to specialize in one. The highlight of my time in Toronto was when we met the Mayor of Toronto, the Deputy Mayor and the Consul General of Jamaica at City Hall. It was an honour to meet them all. I must extend great thanks to The Deputy Mayor of Toronto, Michael Thompson for giving us the opportunity to attend the collision conference. He was the person who sponsored the whole collision experience for us. To Lianne McNaughton(YCDI mommy) for creating the avenue for us to grow and develop. Leaving Canada I must say I have gotten much better at communication and left with a burning desire to excel in my areas of passion. Ps. I got a bag from Dell for drawing a member of their team on the cintiq.

Being an Intern at YCDI for the last two months have been an edifying experience. I’ve been exposed to systems and concepts I was totally unaware of prior to the start of my tenure. Of all the new ideas I was introduced to, the most compelling one was the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment system. A 30 minute, 177 question evaluation in lieu of a rapid fire multiple choice test revealed an extremely insightful interpretation of my natural talents. Now I had always had a good idea of the things I’m predisposed to but what Gallup was able to do with the small amount of input I gave to them was almost supernatural. It was as if they took my mind apart, peeled away at each individual layer and revealed the inner recesses of my persona. The results of the test were an exhaustingly comprehensive analysis of my strengths, ranked in numerical order. Not only was it able to tell me what my strengths were, but it also explained how these strengths manifest themselves in my behaviour with frightening accuracy. Gallup didn’t stop there though, they went on to explain how I can improve upon my strengths and mitigate my weaknesses. Armed with this knowledge, I was able to execute my work with much more self-awareness than in past jobs. During the preparation phase of the camp, our coordinator directed several “empowering youth” sessions where we learned the details of the various Gallup strengths. We learned about the various categories of thinking each strength fell under, such as strategic and relationship building. Additionally we learned how we could practically apply and improve upon our talents in everyday life. StrengthsFinder is truly one of the most powerful self-improvement tools I’ve ever come across and I will be utilising the knowledge I’ve gained from it in everything I do from here on. Another concept I was exposed to was that of Agile Project Management. Agile is essentially a style of project management focused on delivering a project by working on and releasing small segments or modules of it over time. This style of project management directly involves the end-user as developers of the product rely on consumer feedback all throughout the development process. A characteristic of Agile management that I really enjoyed is that teams working under a project manager are given plenty of autonomy in how they work. This may lead to a more proficient development process as a team member may come up with a way of doing something that never would have crossed the project manager’s mind. The most emphasized characteristic of Agile is continuous adaptation, purveyors of Agile management are masters of the contingency plan; one must always look for the most efficient and practical way of accomplishing tasks that further the development of the project. Even if this means changing your original plan or aspects of the project itself. In terms of DAB Summer ‘17, agile management was utilised in a myriad of ways during both phases. During preparation after us volunteers were placed in our various teams, we were given free reign in how we organised the activities our teams would be responsible for. During execution we came up with contingencies whenever a particular activity wasn’t able to go ahead the way it was originally planned, with little or no intervention from our coordinator. This created a culture of constant involvement as most of us were emotionally invested in the outcome of the activities we had organised. Another noteworthy concept I was introduced to at YCDI is the theory of the dipper and the bucket. This theory posits that each of us has a metaphorical bucket and dipper. When we say or do things to increase a person’s positive emotions we fill their bucket and our own bucket simultaneously. If we say or do things that decrease a person’s positive emotions we dip from their bucket and our own as well. This is a concept which really stuck with me as we often downplay the effect our words and actions have on people’s feelings. I will be applying this concept in my everyday life from now on as the world more than ever needs positivity. Interning at YCDI has definitely been the most enriching employment endeavour I’ve ever done. My perspective has been broadened in more ways than I expected and this experience will serve me very well in the future.

Volunteering at DAB Summer ‘17 has been a personally enriching experience that’s definitely opened my eyes. During the last four weeks we were given the opportunity to significantly influence a group of unique yet ambitious high schoolers not too different from ourselves when we were their age. Many Jamaicans underestimate the impact that good mentorship can have on the development of a teen. A good teacher, pastor and in our case camp counsellor, can change the life trajectory of a young man or woman simply by showing a sincere interest in their well being. This is what we as volunteers tried to do to the best of our ability.. During the preparation phase of the camp we outlined several goals for ourselves, the most important one being that the students have a great experience while attending. This was the underlying motivation for all of the activities we orchestrated during the camp, and I dare say we succeeded. During the last week of camp, I keenly observed the students and I can say with certainty that the vast majority of them were not the same persons they were three weeks prior.  Everything that we did during the execution phase of our camp gave way for self-exploration, personal development and a well deserved boost in their self-esteem. Statements from the campers such as “This year was so much better organised than last year” and “You guys are the best set of volunteers we’ve ever had” really validated the feeling among us, that we accomplished our goal. Reflecting upon my time at the camp, being a volunteer especially in the service of young people is an exercise in patience and maturity. I find that I have a much deeper appreciation of what it takes to organise something like a summer camp, as simple as they might seem. I have also learned that things will rarely turn out exactly as you planned them, so one must always be prepared for any eventualities and have contingency plans in place. It was challenging, being in charge of so many different young people for the duration of the camp. We each had to take time out to learn and appreciate the personalities of all the students in order to get the best out of them. We did this because a key aspect of our camp was getting the students to identify and appreciate their individual strengths, we tailored our camp activities to magnify these strengths and disarm  their weaknesses. We also taught them about the importance of being able to work well in groups as they looked towards collaborating with others . Most of us volunteers, knowing the value of these life lessons were glad to be able to instill them in the campers so they can avoid some of the pitfalls we fell victim to at their age. Volunteering in a program like DAB Summer 17’ or something similar is something I’d recommend every young adult to do if they are seeking to become a well rounded individual. The lessons I’ve learned over the two months of the camp are invaluable and will stay with me for life, it was an experience well worth my time.

At Youth Can Do I.T. we have embraced modernity in almost every facet of our operations. Technology has become the backbone of the work we do as a team in order for us to meet all the challenges of being a company in 2017. We are constantly innovating our modus operandi which has fostered a culture of growth and progress. Our latest project DAB Summer ‘17, was planned and organised almost exclusively using online services and platforms. During the month of June cloud storage became a YCDI Intern’s best friend, Google Drive being the platform of choice for this particular endeavour. A myriad of documents, presentations, spreadsheets and schedules related to the camp were available to us anytime on any platform of our choosing provided we had an internet connection. This provided us with the type of flexibility so many crave, being able to work on our own time and at our own pace (though still having to meet the obligation of office hours). Google Drive also mitigated any potential clumsiness which may have lead to important files being lost which gave each of us significant margin for error. Like most other companies, we organised ourselves into various teams with clearly designated roles specifically for the project. As such, an effective method of communication among teams became needed; to achieve this we chose Slack. Slack is an incredible platform which has made inter and intra team coordination a breeze, similar to whatsapp it is available in both mobile app formats as well as desktop variants. It goes much further than Whatsapp in providing channels and subchannels in which teams can communicate and exchange files and other forms of data. The way we set it up, Slack essentially allowed us to see our entire organisational structure and communicate on any level of it; a truly “mobile” office. The biggest challenge in any project is actually accomplishing the tasks needed to meet your goal(s). Traditionally, to-do lists and calendars have been used to achieve this. In the contemporary world these have been superseded by smartphone apps such as Google Keep. At YCDI though we decided to use something called Trello. Trello is an online service which is essentially a giant organisational to-do list. It is supremely useful for project coordination, since all the tasks we need to do can be visually mapped out for everyone to see. The to-dos are organised by team, then by individual and also allows for collaboration. Trello is the king of team organization platforms, if used properly it can become a visual roadmap of whatever project you are working on. Some of these platforms are new to me, some I was previously familiar with but I must admit I’m thoroughly impressed with how we’ve managed to utilise technology in our day to day work. YCDI is a company which embraces all the technological amenities available to us in the modern age in order to effectively carry out our projects.