Abigail Swank recalls her early days in Cohort 10: “I was completely terrified on the first day of YPI. I was homeschooled and felt like I was very different from the other cohort members. I was the odd duckling… At first I had a hard time finding my way, but I found my grounding as we developed our project.”

“At first I had a hard time connecting with people. But as I started working with [the cohort] we all realized that we weren’t that different from each other. And even if we weren’t friends, we could build really healthy working relationships. We could depend on each other and reach out if we needed help… YPI gave me the opportunity to understand the difference between a work environment and a personal environment. That’s something so incredibly unique.”

In year three of YPI, Abigail was on the cohort’s partnerships committee tasked with managing the project’s hand-off to Tulsa Changemakers. “Changemakers was very new at the time,” Abigail recalled. “[Changemakers founders] Jake and Andrew were extremely passionate about our project, and we were so happy when they agreed to take it on.” 

When she graduated, Abigail kept up the relationship with Changemakers. “I would call them 2-3 times a year for an update on Teens on Board. Eventually they invited me to facilitate the youth advisory board for Hunger Free Oklahoma. I would hold 2-3 meetings per month for 3-4 hours at a time. We created a project to gather data on what students think about the quality of food at their schools.”

Abigail developed a reputation in the community as an authority on youth boards. “The Little Lighthouse invited me to run their youth board. I led the board from 2019-21, and grew it from 6-8 members to around 25. It is still going strong.”

Abigail is currently a senior at Oral Roberts University studying leadership and non-profit business. “I love non-profit work,” she said. “I’m particularly interested in equitable housing for low income families in Tulsa. I also have an interest in real estate... In the future, I’d love to create a non-profit that combines these two interests.”

Abigail is continuing to grow her non-profit experience while working as an intern at Changemakers. “I was so excited for the opportunity to work with Changemakers,” she reflects. “I now work on various programs including youth voice fellowship, which is based on Teens on Board. I am developing a curriculum for youth advisory boards and am working with several local organizations to help them run their boards.”

“I tell people about my experience with YPI a lot. It built me as a female entrepreneur. It gave me grit and the confidence to understand that I was able to build and develop and be a part of something bigger than myself. It also gave me a set of tools that I didn’t have before walking in.”

“The biggest thing I learned from YPI is that youth voice and empowerment is essential and valued. The fact that adults saw our potential gave us the confidence to be who we are today. Particularly when I look at my peers today who didn’t go through YPI, I can see that I have a certain kind of confidence that couldn’t be bought or learned in any other way.”