Academia de Liderazgo Juvenil Cívico
CYLA (Civic Youth Leadership Academy)
The Civic Youth Leadership Academy is En Español’s student leadership program designed to help young people build confidence, communication, teamwork, creativity, responsibility, and service-minded leadership.
Through hands-on STEAM activities, bilingual learning, service projects, mentorship, college exposure, and reflection, CYLA gives students the chance to do more than participate. Students learn how to teach, organize, support others, solve problems, and lead with purpose.
CYLA reflects En Español’s mission: helping students grow from learning, to leadership, to lasting community impact.
What CYLA Students Do
CYLA students participate in leadership experiences that connect education with action. Depending on their age and experience, students may:
- Help lead hands-on STEAM activities
- Teach or mentor younger students
- Support bilingual learning activities
- Plan and organize class materials
- Lead small groups during workshops
- Participate in service-learning projects
- Reflect on leadership growth
- Build a CYLA Leadership Portfolio
- Join college exposure or field trip experiences
- Practice public speaking, teamwork, and problem-solving
Through these experiences, students learn that leadership is not only about being in charge. It is about helping others, communicating clearly, adapting to challenges, and serving the community.
Leadership Skills Students Practice
CYLA is designed to help students practice leadership skills through real experiences, not only lectures. Students build:
Communication — explaining ideas clearly and listening to others
Creativity — designing activities, projects, and solutions
Adaptability — adjusting when plans change or activities do not go as expected
Generosity — using time and effort to support others
Problem-solving — working through challenges during projects and service activities
Responsibility — preparing materials, showing up, and helping lead activities
Teamwork — working with peers, volunteers, and younger students
Trial-and-error learning — learning from mistakes and improving
Vision and goal-setting — thinking about future education, service, and leadership
Public speaking and storytelling — sharing ideas, presenting, and building confidence
Leadership is not measured only by hours completed. It is measured by growth, responsibility, reflection, and the ability to help others.
Leadership Training
CYLA also gives student leaders opportunities to explore future educational pathways. During STEM exposure experiences, such as our visit to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, students are encouraged to imagine themselves as future college students, mentors, teachers, and community leaders.
These field trips are not only campus visits. They are leadership training experiences. Students reflect on how education connects to service, how older students can become role models for younger students, and how their own futures can be connected to community impact.
Service Learning in Action
CYLA connects leadership with service. Through projects such as Joy in a Box, students practice empathy, responsibility, teamwork, and generosity by creating cards, assembling kits, and supporting youth well-being.
These projects help students understand that service is not separate from education. It is one way students learn to lead. By helping others, students practice compassion, organization, communication, and community responsibility.
Each service-learning project gives students a chance to ask:
What does my community need?
How can I help?
How can I use my voice, creativity, and time to support others?
A Student-to-Student Leadership Pathway
CYLA creates a pathway where younger students learn from older student leaders, and older students grow by teaching, mentoring, and serving.
Younger students gain confidence through hands-on activities that make learning active, creative, and fun. Older students develop leadership skills by explaining concepts, guiding activities, encouraging students, and helping create a welcoming learning environment.
This student-to-student model allows leadership to grow naturally. Students who once participated in programs can later become mentors, volunteers, and leaders for the next group of learners.
CYLA helps students move from being learners to becoming leaders who help others learn.
Reflection-Based Leadership Growth
CYLA uses reflection surveys and leadership portfolios to help students understand their own growth. Student leaders reflect on the skills they practiced, challenges they faced, moments when they helped younger students, and how their understanding of leadership changed.
These reflections help En Español improve the program while giving students a meaningful record of their development.
Students are encouraged to reflect on questions such as:
What leadership skill did I practice most?
What challenge did I face, and how did I respond?
How did I help a younger student?
What am I proud of?
How did this experience help the community?
What does leadership mean to me now?
CYLA Impact
Since launching, CYLA has helped students grow through hands-on learning, leadership training, service projects, and mentorship.
Impact highlights:
200+ students engaged through CYLA activities
70+ student leaders and volunteers involved
1500+ leadership/service hours completed
50+ hands-on STEAM or service activities led
1000+ Joy in a Box kits/cards created or supported
3+ field trip or college exposure experiences
Behind every number is a student gaining confidence, practicing leadership, and learning how to serve their community.
Student Reflections (Reflexiones)
CYLA students reflect on their growth after teaching, mentoring, field trips, and service projects. Their reflections help show how leadership develops through real experience.
“I learned that leadership means helping others understand, not just telling them what to do.”
“I became more confident explaining activities to younger students.”
“The field trip helped me imagine college as something possible for my future.”
“I learned that when something does not go as planned, a leader has to stay calm and adapt.”
Estudiantes Destacados
Student Spotlights
Nuestra serie de entrevistas para jóvenes innovadores se centra en nuestros estudiantes y voluntarios. Hablamos con ellos sobre cómo STEM es importante en sus vidas y los desafíos y situaciones que han superado en su vida. Queremos inspirar un amor por la ciencia y la innovación, ya que creemos que STEM es uno de los campos que más puede crecer. Queremos empoderar a los futuros desarrolladores, innovadores y científicos del mañana.
Our Community Innovators Interview Series focuses on our students and volunteers. We talk to them about how STEM is important in their lives and the challenges and situations they have overcome in their lives. We want to inspire a love of science and innovation, as we believe STEM is one of the fields that can grow the most. We want to empower the future developers, innovators and scientists of tomorrow.