A Shy Teenager Who Became A Leader

Meet Anna.

She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to the US when she was two years old.

We hired her as a StreetLeader for our first summer camp in 2021. She was 15. It was her first job, and she was shy and unsure of herself in almost every way. She would rather disappear into the background behind the louder, more confident StreetLeaders than stand in front of a room full of kids and lead anything.

But she was steady and trustworthy. You could tell there was something in her — she just needed someone to help call it out.

There’s something powerful about being given the title “StreetLeader” before you fully believe you are one.

Week after week, year after year, Anna began finding her voice. She learned how to lead a classroom. How to speak up. How to believe she had something worth offering.

The transformation was slow and beautiful, and by her senior year, she had become one of our StreetLeader captains.

At our Rise UP! Breakfast in 2023, Anna bravely stood in front of a room full of people and shared her story — something the Anna we met a few years earlier could have never imagined doing.

Not because she suddenly became someone different overnight.

But because over the course of years, she was known, trusted, encouraged, and reminded of who God created her to be.

After graduating high school, Anna started at Nashville State studying health science.

But last summer, she came back to UPN as a camp intern.

Somewhere in the middle of leading kids, writing lessons, and spending her days in the gym, something clicked. Today, Anna is studying elementary education.

In her own words:

“Because of UrbanPromise, I am able to use my voice. If it wasn't for UrbanPromise, I probably would not even think about becoming a teacher.”

And perhaps the most beautiful part:

“I am a leader.”

If you give to UPN monthly, this is what your generosity is making possible. It helped pay for the job that taught a shy teenager from Thailand how to lead a classroom, and surrounded her with people who believed in her long before she fully believed in herself.

This summer, new StreetLeaders will walk through our doors, just like Anna did five years ago. Some of them are shy, unsure, and lacking confidence. 

They may not believe they’re leaders yet, either.

That’s where becoming starts.

Watch Anna's story of becoming here: https://youtu.be/G-J7CAlQpRs