Boys & Girls Clubs 2022 Youth of the Year finalist: Vanisha Miles
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley will present its highest honor to a local teen this week. Four finalists are in the running for the coveted title of Youth of the Year.
Now, we highlight one of the finalists, 16-year-old Vanisha Miles who says the Boys & Girls Clubs has made a tremendous difference in her life.
Miles is a sophomore at Smiths Station High School. She says she’s been attending Boy & Girls Clubs since she was about six years old.
“I’m now 16. So, it’s been a very long time and if I were to compare myself back then to what I am now, I will say that the Boys & Girls Clubs has helped me boost my confidence,” Miles said.
Although she lives in east Alabama, her mom works in Columbus and started taking her to the Boys and Girls Clubs to help her flourish into the bright, young remarkable young lady she is today.
“Boys & Girls Clubs has helped me boost my confidence and help me with my communication skills because I was a very shy person growing up and I felt like I was an outcast,” Miles said. “I shouldn’t be here. But as I learned to open up to people and like speak what’s on my mind toward others like showing my feelings.”
Vanisha enjoys basketball, track and field, singing and dancing. And like most teens, she also enjoys hanging out with her friends. She admits her friends consider her a ‘Mother Hen’.
“They call me ‘Mother Hen’ like I’ve always protecting somebody,” she said. “I care about some of them. I’m a very protective person.”
In addition to wanting to become a lawyer one day, Vanisha says she wants to continue to make a difference in the lives of others even while she’s in college.
“I, kind of, want to be a spokesperson for young boys and girls about sexual assault,” she said. “No one really talks about that and it’s something we need to talk about because it already gets overlooked. So, I do want to be a spokesperson, maybe hold an event about it while I’m in college or out of college, but that is one of my main and top goals I want to do.”
The youth of the year will be announced Thursday night at the Bibb Mill Center in Columbus.
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