Massachusetts Youth Leadership Foundation (MYL Foundation) is a Massachusetts-based 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization seeking to recognize, teach, and empower leadership in high school sophomores across the state. We value the potential of young people as our future leaders and provide them with the tools to create positive change in their schools and communities. MYL Foundation's central program is MassSTAR (Massachusetts STudents Accepting Responsibility), a three day leadership conference held on a college campus each summer. We invite one sophomore from every Massachusetts-accredited rural, suburban, and inner city high school, both public and private, to participate in an exciting, hands-on learning experience. Student delegates are nominated and chosen by their school principals, guidance counselors, teachers, and advisors, based on their demonstrated and potential leadership ability. For more than twenty-five years, MYL Foundation's annual programs have reached over 5,000 students. Through a series of panel speakers, group learning activities, and intensive small group discussions, we take these young people and demonstrate to them that they can be proactive leaders in their own communities. These students then take these skills and bring them back to their home school environments. MassSTAR is unique in the fact that its programs are offered at no cost to students, their families, or their schools, enabling the inclusion of all student nominees, regardless of social or economic background. Our organization is 100 percent volunteer driven, with most of the volunteers being alumni of the program. These alumni are living proof that this organization is worthy of its cause. They themselves have seen the power of what is learned during these workshops and are committed to offering the same opportunity for other high school sophomores across Massachusetts.
