Kari Balazs selected for Alabama Governor’s Youth Leadership Forum
Kari Balazs, a rising senior at Hoover High, was excited to learn that she was one of only a handful of high school students selected this year to participate in the Alabama Governor’s Youth Leadership Forum (YLF).
The forum, held June 5-8 at Troy University, is an annual event designed to assist students with disabilities in developing leadership skills and the use of resources that can assist them with future challenges.
Kari has Down syndrome and spent months looking forward to YLF. She returned from the camp-like experience the first week of June, with new perspectives on her life.“What I learned was how to be a leader. We talked about how to become self-advocates and learned tips and tricks of how to live on our own,” Kari said.
Kari said her parents were very proud when the family received official notification that she had been selected as the delegate from Hoover High School, a school her mom describes as “supportive” and full of “creative teachers.”
“Kari tackles all challenges enthusiastically,” her mother, Lisa Balazs, said. “Kari has a great GPA; she is on the [general education] pathway and everything takes her longer and it is always more work for her, yet it never slows her down. We are hoping she learns that it is OK to go away from home and have new experiences. She wants to be independent and this is one way we can help her take steps towards going away to college and living on her own one day.”
In fact, Kari is the third Hoover High School student in three years to have attended YLF (Hunter Fair in 2016 and Alex Jian in 2015).
YLF provided other opportunities for Kari, including a talent show, a dance, and laser tag games. Beyond the fun, Kari says she gained camaraderie beyond measure.
“The other students were fun and very nice. My main point of going was to see other people who were like me, so I can learn what it is like for people to have different disabilities and to overcome them,” Kari said.
-Submitted by Jason Gaston