I spent the majority of my Life-Health Science Internship working towards developing Your Life. Your Story. I researched camp participants' sparks, or passions, in relation to their resilience skills. Their initial applications to attend camp included essay questions related to their interests and goals. I went through these applications and coded different categories of sparks. One hundred percent of the teens valued service and giving back to their families and communities. I found that despite having a 60 percent increased likelihood of developing depression due to acculturative stress, these Latino youth possessed inherent empathic ideation and set positive goals for themselves. Therefore, what is lacking in these youth is the skills required to attain their goals.

The goal of YLYS, then, is to help build resilience and life skills in Latino teens so they can battle depression and lead fulfilling lives. I presented these findings at the LHSI poster session and I continued my research through the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Institute (MURI) the summer following my LHSI experience. As I gained momentum in my internship, I became more outspoken about the mentoring aspect of camp.