HOLA youth with STOKED youth outside 10 Jay Street.
A lot!
We are more alike than we believe and we got to witness that firsthand this past Friday as we hosted a group of teens from the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) program at our New York office.
HOLA is a non-profit that has been working with under-served youth in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. They provide kids ages 6-19 with programs in academics, arts and athletics. They were also STOKED’s first partner in Los Angeles, so we were super excited to host them.
For our visitors, it was their first time in New York and for some it was their first experience traveling outside of Los Angeles!
Talks and intros at Stoked New York HQ.
We compared lingo across the coasts–tight vs. dank–and both groups got excited as they saw similarities and joked about some of the differences in speech.
HOLA kids taught us an interactive icebreaker game called “All my peeps,”and after a couple of hilarious rounds the camaraderie was solid.
We finished off the day with a whispered version of the STOKED circle.
Overall the kids were happy they got to meet each other and to know that they aren’t alone in their struggles. Getting the HOLA and STOKED NY kids together was a great opportunity for them to see how similar kids can be regardless of how far they live and where they come from.
Thanks to Zaidy and Alexandra, our rockstar Summer Associates, for creating this blog post.
P.S. Meet Zaidy tomorrow on the blog…
