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Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford Names 2025 Youth of the Year, Junior Youth of the Year
Winners from five Clubs compete for Hartford title
The Youth of the Year and Junior Youth of the Year contestants with the 2025 judges.
What does leadership look like in 2025?
It was a question posed to the Youth of the Year candidates during Selection Night interviews on March 6 at the Samuel S. Gray, Jr. Boys & Girls Club at Asylum Hill.
The answers, which ranged from being willing to make sacrifices and compromises for the greater good to standing up and taking charge to improve the community, demonstrated levels of maturity and altruism not often associated with teenagers.
These traits, however, are the traits of a Youth of the Year. The title is the highest honor awarded by a Boys & Girls Club and signifies a young leader, scholar and role model who embodies what it means to be a Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford member.
Each year one high school member and one middle school member compete for the Youth of the Year and Junior Youth of the Year titles, respectively, at their individual Clubs. Through essays, academic achievements and public speaking they must demonstrate they have the traits necessary to be the organization’s ambassador as Youth of the Year.
A winner from each of Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford’s five Clubs – the Samuel S. Gray, Jr. Boys & Girls Club at Asylum Hill, the Joseph D. Lapenta Northwest Boys & Girls Club, the South End Boys & Girls Club, the Southwest Boys & Girls Club and the Boys & Girls Club at Trinity College – go on to compete to become the Hartford Youth of the Year and Junior Youth of the Year.
Selection Night is a major milestone for Club kids competing for Youth of the Year and one that many of them look forward to for years. The evening begins with contestants and their mentors gathering for networking with community leaders. Once the competition begins, the contestants are called one by one to deliver their prepared speeches and meet with the judges.
Joseph D. Lapneta Northwest Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year Jálon P. (left) networks with Life Trustee Dick Brainerd (center) and BGCH Vice President of Human Resources Veronica Collins-Lucas (right) on Selection Night.
Two slates of judges, one for the Youth of the Year and one for the Junior Youth of the Year, interview each candidate and consider their suitability to be a Club ambassador. The judges are community leaders who volunteer their time to participate. This year’s judges included Darryl Bonner of Liberty Bank, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford Life Trustee Richard Brainerd, Rebecca Corbin Loree of Corbin Advisors, Jay Williams from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Kelly Papa of Duncaster, Alexa King of Oracle, Kayla Monroe of Raytheon, Carolyn Hudkins and Stacey Epps. They are tasked with a tough decision, selecting one young person to represent the Club, and deliberations are often filled with passion and emotion.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford President & CEO Bruce W. Jeffery welcomes the audience during Youth of the Year Selection Night.
The 2025 Junior Youth of the Year and the Youth of the Year both hail from the Southwest Boys & Girls Club. Junior Youth of the Year, Johanna R., is in sixth grade, loves to read and plays on the Club’s volleyball team. “I feel like I really belong here, the Club is a second home,” she said. “I feel comfortable here and I can say how I feel.” As Junior Youth of the Year, Johanna will now take on a larger leadership role in her Club and for Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford. She’ll also be well-positioned as she grows and develops to one day become Youth of the Year.
Her fellow Club member, Emani L., is Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford’s Youth of the Year. She is a high school senior who dreams of studying business at the University of Connecticut or an HBCU. She has taken advantage of a multitude of activities and opportunities the Club offers and has emerged as a role model and leader for her fellow members. But she has much bigger leadership aspirations. She says she can be a leader who listens, motivates and inspires. “I will make it my mission to help others be surrounded by the right support that they will need in order to achieve their own versions of success,” Emani said.
Junior Youth of the Year Johanna R. (left) and Youth of the Year Emani L. (right) pose with their mentor, Southwest Club Director Lourdes Carrasco (center).
Emani will now go on to compete at the state level where she could be named the Connecticut Youth of the Year. The winner from the state competition will move on to the New England region and potentially the national competition.
Regardless of how the state competition ends, Emani and Johanna have both joined an elite group of Club kids. They will now forever carry the Youth of the Year and Junior Youth of the Year titles and will continue to be role models and leaders even after they are grown and out of the Club. Selection Night brought back several Youth of the Year alumni, who now have their own careers and families, to mentor the next generation.
The Youth of the Year program and its impact on the Club will be celebrated at the 2025 Great Futures Celebration. Emani and Johanna will both take the stage and the spotlight on June 7 at Infinity Music Hall as they share what it means to be a Club kid.
