Our Staff

Part of overseeing the program, Shuk works together with her team to provide the youth with the best resources and opportunities. She keeps in touch with the participants to make sure that they are doing well, but also to provide them with upcoming events and other information. Communication is very important to her because it enables her to speak upon her experiences to the youth to help guide them into adulthood. By being a mentor she stays true to herself and teaches what she lives by, but most importantly she always has a bigger heart when doing things. She treasures the connection she forms with the youth throughout their years at Learn & Earn and appreciates when they come back as alumni to reconnect. Shuk is someone who is always optimistic and wants the youth to take away from that and be appreciative of what they have and the people who are willing to help them.

When first involved with CPC, Belinda was a youth participant for their summer programs. She participated in SYEP, WLG, and Ladders for Leaders. As someone who has benefited so much from CPC’s programs, she is beyond excited to be back at CPC, not as a participant, but as an Education & Career Specialist for the Learn & Earn Program. She is humbled by the opportunity to assist high school students with their education and career exploration journey. The most rewarding part of her job is watching the youths to grow and step out of their comfort zone. Belinda hopes by joining Learn & Earn, she could establish deeper connections with the youths and to create a safe space where youths are comfortable with sharing their happy and sad moments. Belinda prides herself in being someone who is able to laugh at her mistakes and is not afraid to be vulnerable. She believes what we view as a mistake today is just another opportunity for growth. These “mistakes” add some glitter to our daily routine and make for much more interesting stories in the future.

Being in charge of PREP, Gilbert focuses a lot on ensuring that his team has the necessary support to make workshops. He supervises the content being made so that it is always accurate for the youth. One of the things that truly motivates Gilbert is being able to help others especially when it comes to health education. Even though it is not his main responsibility, Gilbert does host workshops from time to time because he wants to get to know the participants. He strives to enable L&E youth to have critical thinking skills so that they can get a deeper understanding of why we must take care of ourselves. At the end of the day Gilbert wants others to “feel comfortable with being uncomfortable” talking about health.

When hosting workshops not only does Tommy teach the youth but he also learns from them. He understands what it is like to learn and dip into different things and opportunities like advocating for the community. He listens to the experiences from the participants and appreciates the new insight and perspective they have to offer. Working with the youth has taught him so much and hopes that the youth also take away from him and PREP. When moments don’t go as planned one thing Tommy would like to instill into the youth is that the experiences you go through can’t be taken away by anyone. There will always be a better side to things as the saying goes grass is greener on the other side.

Pamela hosts PREP workshops for the youth and supervises peer educators. As someone whose job entails working with youth it is very important to Pamela that what she teaches makes an impact. She touches upon topics that the youth don’t normally learn in school and in their daily lives. It’s very heartwarming and motivating to hear youth stay behind and thank her but also say that they learned something that no one has had the courage to teach. Pamela brings a new perspective to the youth by showing them that it is ok to break free from societal pressures by pursuing their own happiness. Some words that Pamela lives by are, “the struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow” and truly hopes that the youth learn to live at their own pace and continue being strong.