OCA - Greater Phoenix Successfully Hosts Annual Youth Leadership Summit
By Chris Chan, OCA - Greater Phoenix
On March 29, 2025, the OCA - Greater Phoenix (OCA - GP) hosted 30 high school and college students for its Youth Leadership Summit (YLS) at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. On a Saturday morning, the students participated in a unique, interactive leadership and mentoring event designed to teach the application of each student’s leadership skills to a variety of fields and situations. Through the generous sponsorships of State Farm Insurance and Paradise Valley Community College, OCA - GP’s YLS event was free to all participants and included breakfast and lunch.
Kent Tong, a leadership development consultant and OCA National’s Senior Program Manager, facilitated the morning and afternoon sessions where each student had an opportunity to introduce themselves to the group and to lead a smaller breakout group discussion. The morning session focused on leadership ambitions including insights about power and privilege. Each student was able to evaluate and express their feelings about different social identities, and they learned about how these social identities are leveraged by different leadership styles. In the afternoon session, the discussion focused on collaboration and helped each student find their own “leadership compass”. In one breakout session, after each student self-identified with at least 1 of 4 leadership styles, within each of the 4 leadership style groups, each group discussed shared characteristics as well as the pros and cons of their particular leadership style. “It was very self-discovering, and also self-oriented … It definitely will help me out in going back to my school,” commented C.C. Luna, a leader of the Future Inspired Native American Leaders (FINAL) Youth Council.
At the lunch break between the morning and after sessions, Astria Wong, a local business owner and President of OCA - GP, spoke to the students about improving their communications and perfecting one’s social skills and manners. Michael Coronado, a student member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, expressed, “This event has had a great impact on me, where you see the different styles of leadership and the different ways people communicate, and its important to understand those differences and learn how to work with the different varieties of people.”
To close the YLS event, Barry Wong, a public policy lawyer and Executive Director of the State of Arizona Governor’s Office of Equal Opportunity, taught the students about democracy in action, including how an idea can turn into law. “I learned how to become a leader and how that benefits myself as well as others,” said Tamara “TJ” John, a student of the Navaho Indian Tribe. Officers and Board members of the OCA - GP also attended the event, and all of the student attendees were able to network after the event with each of the speakers, OCA - GP officers and Board members, and each other.