Youth Leaders Up Close: Nicole Sam

My name is Nicole Sam. I joined the Youth Leadership Institute and Friday Night Live after a presentation was given at Sunnyside High during my senior year. YLI caught my attention because it is a positive community organization that has really good focus and direction for youth causes. During my time at YLI, I went to all sorts of meetings that taught me so much about the current state of Fresno County. Not only did I learn about local problems, but also ways to solve problems and how to prevent future problems.

The Sunnyside youth council orchestrated a successful Alco-pop campaign. The campaign included surveying Sunnyside high students on alcopop consumption and awareness. We also educated convenience store owners around Sunnyside High about alcopops and underage drinking. Our efforts led to store owners signing pledges to always check ID when selling alcoholic beverages including alcopops. Our youth council presented our campaign to the community at the “Community According to Youth” forum. I was also a part of the documentary, "WASTED: The Truth about Underage Drinking in Fresno County" video that was shown at the same community forum.

Other activities I participated in at Sunnyside include: Don't Laugh At Me, a club that focuses on preventing bullying and educating elementary school students by holding assemblies and skits, Encourage Tomorrow, a program where I mentored an elementary school student once a week, and The Wildcat Word, the school's newspaper publication. This fall I will be attending UC Merced.

Nicole Sam ( in red )on the WASTED documentary shoot


Nicole (far right) securing merchant pledges for The Sunnyside FNL Alcopops Campaign