09/01/2019
Celebrating the 18 Students who were selected by John J. Harris Chapter 397 National Sojourners and attended the Youth Leadership Conference onboard USS Lexington June 16-20, 2019. Students were 11th Graders who were advancing to their Senior Year; they were from 45 High School in South Texas. They lived onboard the Lex during the Conference raising at 6:00AM and retiring at taps (2200) or later. Their days were long and full. This banquet was to award them their certificates and honor them, their parents and school officials.
A Youth Leadership Conference (YLC) is a program to teach high school students leadership, Americanism, patriotism and the American Free Enterprise system, and the fundamentals of citizenship.
The program is sponsored by the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW), a national patriotic and veteran's organization, chartered by the U. S. Congress. Corpus Christi YLC is sponsored by Region VIII, MMOW with funding by Texas Patriotic Education Foundation, Inc. (TX PEF, Inc.) and five National Sojourner Chapters. The TX PEF, Inc. website will provide you with valuable information regarding the MOWW Youth Leadership Conference (YLC) program and can be found at http://www.txpef.org.
In Texas they were five National Sojourner Chapters – Anson Jones Chapter, Brazos Valley Chapter, John J. Harris Chapter (Corpus Christi), Fort Sam Houston Chapter and Audit Murphy Chapter – that are affiliated with the MOWW YLC Program. These Chapter provide for 38 billets to the various YLCs in both Texas and Oklahoma.
Cost per Student to the Affiliated Organization is $300.00, with the remaining cost paid by the Texas Patriotic Education Foundation. There are 72 billets allocated for the Lex YLC 2019. John J. Harris Chapter reserved 20 positions to the conference onboard USS Lexington (Lex) which will be held June 16 – 20, 2019.
Selected recipients of the scholarships to attend the YLC are exceptional high school sophomores or juniors that are proposed by the school counselors from 40 area high schools and submit an extensive application which is screened by sponsoring chapters of the Military Order of the World Wars or by other sponsoring, affiliated organizations. Students are selected based on their academic standing, leadership potential, and demonstrated excellence in school and the community. They are expected to return to their schools the following year and put into practice what they learned at the conference. The Chapters follow the students during the conference and in the subsequent school years and onward to gather effectiveness of the program.
Participants stay in separate dormitory areas of the universities and in separate compartments for boys and girls onboard the USS Lexington Museum. All sleeping quarters will be chaperoned by conference adult staff members who will assist with the conference and be available to assist participants if any problems arise. All students will eat together utilizing the facilities of each institution. Members of the Military Order or other sponsoring, affiliated organizations, as well as parents may attend any session. And all are invited to attend the banquet or final ceremonies on the last day or night of the conference where awards will be presented to selected conference attendees. A closing message will be given by an outstanding speaker.
A deposit of $25.00 collected from each student or parent upon acceptance for the conference which will be refunded to the student upon his/her arrival at the conference and can be used as spending money or simply retained.
About Youth Leadership Conferences (YLCs)
The YLC program of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) began in the early 1980s patterned after the Freedom Foundation, Inc. program at Valley Forge, PA. The program was deemed to be both important to the youth and future leaders of our nation, and that it could be done on a local basis. This would save the cost of transporting students from around the country to and from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
The MOWW formed a committee and thus began the program. The general guidelines of the Freedom Foundation, Inc. program were adopted to include the following three areas of concentration:
Leadership at 50% of instruction; Patriotism and Americanism at 30% of instruction; and the American Free Enterprise System at 20% of instruction.
The first YLC was held at St. Augustine, Florida. Soon other areas of the country established YLCs to include Monterey, CA and Oklahoma City, OK. By the middle of the 1980s, the number had grown to ten YLCs around the country.
Region VIII of the MOWW (comprising the states of Texas and Oklahoma) meeting in November 1997, decided to create YLCs within the region and to also create a foundation to assist in the funding of the YLCs. The Texas Patriotic Education Foundation, Inc., (TX PEF, Inc.) was established on 18 November 1997 and the region held the first YLC in June 1998 at Fort Hood, Texas.
Since then 80 additional YLCs have been held for a total of 81 at ten additional venues: Fort Hood, Killeen, TX (5 additional YLCs for a total of 6), established 1998; USS Lexington Museum, Corpus Christi, TX (20 YLCs) established 1999; Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK (14 YLCs) reestablished in 2000; Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (12 YLCs) established 2002; Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, TX (9 YLCs) established 2005; Central Texas College, Killeen, TX (7 YLCs) established 2007; Texas Military Institute, San Antonio, TX (6 YLCs) established 2002; University of Texas at San Antonio, TX (4 YLCs) established 2007; Camp Carter, Fort Worth, TX (1 YLC) held in 2004; Trinity University, San Antonio, TX (1 YLC) held in 2011; St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX (1 YLC) established 2013.
