In 2016, Nasya Agyekum came with a friend to a YouthConnect event at the Worcester Youth Center. Her friend’s father worked there, and she wanted to see what it was all about.

She found a welcoming place. “That was three years ago,” she said. “I couldn’t stop coming. I’m there almost every day.” Nasya has found that the Youth Center offers the chance to learn something new, to find new friendships and to do “a lot of growing.”

“I’ve met people I never expected to be friends with,” she said. Once awkward and uncertain around people she didn’t know, she will now “go and talk to anybody.” 

The Worcester Youth Center is very helpful. They show you how to be open-minded about a situation and help you find other solutions.

A junior in high school, she coaches 15 middle school girls in the Teen Circle program. As an assistant for program facilitator Nydia Colón, Nasya tracks attendance and transportation and occasionally gives the girls a lesson with an activity tied into the topic. The Teen Circle curriculum covers such themes as self-awareness, finding your voice and defining oppression.

Beyond her work experience with the young teens, Nasya knows how to write a resume and has gained new communications and other workforce skills.

She’s also learned, she said, that “there’s more to life than playing around.” She pays more attention in class and is taking school seriously. When there’s a problem, she said, “the Worcester Youth Center is very helpful. They show you how to be open-minded about a situation and help you find other solutions.”