Tri-City Medical Center and local NAACP run teen leadership program

Tri-City Medical Center teamed up with North San Diego NAACP to run a youth leadership program that guides teens as they work toward their career goals.

The five-month program, which includes mentorship, career planning, hands-on job experience and leadership training, graduated its first 20 students, ages 14-19, on May 15 during an online ceremony led by Aaron Byzak, chief external affairs officer for Tri-City Medical Center.

The program, which is under the umbrella of the North San Diego NAACP Youth Leadership Council, brings together teens with business and community leaders who share insights and lessons learned during their careers to help prepare students for the road ahead.

Tri-City Medical Center’s partnership in the program goes beyond financial support and includes training sessions led by hospital leaders as part of the center’s Community Outreach and Support Through Active Leadership Commitment (aka COASTAL) initiative, which includes nearly 60 partner organizations.

Each session is based on an education and training program called “Strategic Career Planning: A 10-Step Guide to Realizing Your Potential,” created by Byzak.

“Everyone has a dream — a vision — of who they want to become. I help people discover how to best attack those seemingly insurmountable steps needed to achieve their vision and become the person they want to be,” said Byzak, who described the process in an article titled “Vision Minus Execution Equals Hallucination,” published on LinkedIn.

Byzak, an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer, originally created the program to help adults reach professional goals, and modified it for a teen audience.

“A lot of students have never been in a setting to analyze themselves in this way. What we want to do is show them that there is so much more to achieving their dreams than just getting good grades in school,” said Debbie Matthews, Youth Council Advisor and member of the Executive Board of the North San Diego County NAACP.

The program helps students who want to excel understand what it takes to achieve their goals and how they can take advantage of resources. It is not just for students interested in a career in a medical field. Participants aspire to become everything from FBI agents and scientists to film-makers and entrepreneurs.

“This program is about growing future community leaders who are going to shape our region over the coming decades,” said Steve Dietlin, CEO of Tri-City Medical Center.

To register for the program, visit NSDCNaacpyouth.org.