By|Michelle Meyers
Thursday, Aug. 31, the Youth Educational Services house on campus, Y.E.S. House, held their open house for students and other members of the community to come and see what the Y.E.S. House has to offer.
The Y.E.S. House is a completely student run program of the Associated Students of Humboldt State University and is under the department of Student Affairs. Since 1968, the Y.E.S. House has played a vital role in supporting students in becoming active members in their community and initiating social change by creating and implementing volunteer programs that serve the needs of the community.
Currently, there are 13 different volunteer programs at Y.E.S. and each of them works with a different population within our local community. Their purpose is to offer support for any kind of needs they may have that arise.
New Games is one of the programs at The Y.E.S. and has been around since 1991. Cori Simons, a Child Development major at HSU and the newest Program Director of New Games explains that the program was created with the intention to promote “non-violence, non-competitiveness in children, and positive relationships between college students and children” through a wide range of team building games.
Simons said that New Games is still seeking volunteers and will eventually be hosting rummage sales and games days on the quad.
“We play a lot of improv games,” Simons said.
Cindy Xiong, freshman Wildlife major at HSU said that she stopped by the Y.E.S. House during her freshman seminar after her professor instructed her group to ask around and see what the campus has to offer.
“They told us about all of these different volunteer opportunities, and some of them interested me,” said Xiong, “As a Wildlife major, I wanted to do something that involved being outdoors.”
Xiong, who signed a volunteer slip, also expressed interest in the Environmental Education Program at the Y.E.S House.
Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies major Oliver Winfield-Perez is the new Program Consultant at the Y.E.S House. He first joined as a volunteer for the Queer Mentoring and Advocacy Program because he wanted to work with queer youth in the community.
“Once I joined I found a very close knit sense of community within Y.E.S, I found friends,” said Winfield-Perez.
During his experience at the Y.E.S House working as a volunteer in the community and within his program, he said that he was able to develop certain professional skills, leadership skills,and social skills, which gave him the motivation to become a director for that program and then eventually apply for a position as Program Consultant.
“This year our theme is Empowerment and Activate,” said Winfield-Perez.
Winfield-Perez said his biggest role as the program consultant and the main focus of the Y.E.S. House is to promote community organizing on and off campus. They are also working to make HSU more inclusive.
“We are also really trying to support our student leaders, foster leadership, foster professional skills and communication skills within our students,” Winfield-Perez said, “and also create a sense of community and a support system for students on campus.”
According to Winfield-Perez, a good amount of students at HSU who have to fill a certain amount of hours for service learning come to the Y.E.S House to help meet that requirement.
“We’re really into service learning. Through our work of engagement within the community, we’re experiencing all of these things, so when we come back to the meetings, they reflect on what happened during times when they were in the community, what they enjoyed, what could be worked on, and then we take that knowledge and try to just apply it in different settings and, or apply it in the future,” said Winfield-Perez.
To submit a volunteer application with the Y.E.S House, you can complete the online volunteer contract located on their website.
How to Contact The Y.E.S. House
House 91
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California 95521
Phone: (707) 826-4965
Fax: (707) 826-5558
E-mail: yes@humboldt.edu
