American Red Cross Youth

The National Youth Council is a group of 13 youth members and 3 adult advisers who work to better serve the youth volunteers of the American Red Cross. We advocate for youth involvement throughout the organization, create resources, and run awesome websites like Redcrossyouth.org!

Meet the National Youth Council for the 2010-2011 Term

1.) Pat West, Council Chair
Pat has been a volunteer for 10 years now and currently serves as the Chair of the National Youth Council. He has been involved in every line of service from being a local disaster volunteer and lifeguard, to organizing blood drives, raising money for the measles initiative and supporting our veterans. Volunteering with the American Red Cross has brought him across the country and around the world including trips to Italy, Switzerland and Kenya where he has interacted with youth from over 150 Red Cross Societies!

2.)Seungjun Kim, Vice Chair
Seungjun is a sophomore at Harvard College, majoring in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and minoring in Global Health and Health Policy. One of his favorite experiences with the Red Cross is teaching First Aid and CPR, in particular, showing students how to tie a bandage and make a sling and binder with triangular bandages. Seungjun is currently the Vice Chair of the Council, in his third year on the Council and seventh year volunteering with the American Red Cross.

3.) Anjuli Sastry, Secretary
Anjuli is a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, and an aspiring journalist. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been involved with the American Red Cross for five years. She was president of her high school American Red Cross club and on the Bay Area Red Cross Youth Executive Board, advocating for youth involvement throughout her local chapter. One of her favorite experiences with the Red Cross was being on the staff for Leadership Development Camp (LDC) throughout high school. This is her second year on the council.

4.) Joseph Gibson, Outreach Officer
Joe is a 19-year-old youth activist from southern Minnesota, United States. His career in youth activism began at the age of 15, when he assisted in changing the legal age of blood donation in his state. Soon after the new law was passed, Joe was honored to become a board member of the North Central region of the American Red Cross. His work with the UN began at the age of 17, and has included work with the United Nations Association of the United States and numerous other non-profits. He is currently the outreach officer of the National Youth Council of the American Red Cross and a freshman student at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Currently his time is dedicated to an initiative that strives to create the position of US Youth Delegate to the United Nations within the US State Department and delegation to the UN. This is his first year on the council.

5.) Anna Bevington, Member
A new member of the National Youth Council, Anna is very excited to represent youth working to save lives all across the nation. Anna is currently the Volunteer Youth Coordinator at her local Westmoreland-Chestnut Ridge Chapter and President of the American Red Cross Club of Seton Hill University. Anna has founded two American Red Cross Youth Clubs and loves to be involved in all services of the American Red Cross. When asked if she has any advice for youth volunteers she said “I want youth volunteers of the American Red Cross to always keep in mind that you are part of something bigger than you, something that is making a difference and saving lives. We are the future of the American Red Cross and each and every one of us is important. We always need to reach out to other youth and let them know they can be part of this too!” This is her first year on the council.

6.) Swetha Prabhakar, Member
Swetha has been a volunteer with the American Red Cross for eight years. She is currently in her third year at Stanford University and is an avid sports enthusiast. She is a Bay Area native, and her home chapter is the Silicon Valley Chapter (formerly known as the Palo Alto Area Chapter). As a leadership volunteer at the chapter level, she was primarily focused on the development and restructuring of youth programs. (She encourages you all to be active in or start a Red Cross Club at your school!) This is Swetha’s third and final year on the National Youth Council, and she hopes to go out with a bang!

7.) Elizabeth Quintana, Member
Elizabeth began volunteering at the American Red Cross Arlington County Chapter when she was 13. One of her favorite experiences on the Council was meeting and interacting with youth volunteers from chapters across the country at the National Youth Institute. She is a fourth year student at the University of Virginia and currently serves as President for the American Red Cross Club at her school. She was one of five students to reestablish the club at the university.
Elizabeth is on her fourth and final year on the Council.

8.) Vic Shah, Member

Vic is currently enrolled as a Masters in Accounting student at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He has volunteered for the American Red Cross for over 10 years and is in his third year on the National Youth Council. He first started volunteering because of his two older sisters, who believed that when you help others, you help yourself. He loves that volunteering increases your ability to work with others, to develop professional skills, and to celebrate the shared values in each other.

9.) Francesca Weaks, Member
Francesca is a first year graduate student at Towson University and has a dual Masters Community Health and Health Administration and undergraduate degree in Biology from NC A &T University. She has been volunteering with the American Red Cross for seven years, and this is her third year on the council. She felt she made the biggest impact with the American Red Cross when she played an active role volunteering and aiding those who had been directly and tragically devastated by Hurricane Katrina. One funny fact about Francesca is that she cannot whistle!

10.) Frankie Kin San Wong, Member
Frankie is a sophomore at Harvard University. He is majoring in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a minor in government. He was born in Hong Kong and moved to Orange County, CA when he was eight.
He first encountered the American Red Cross when he was a freshman in high school and immediately fell in love with the things the organization did and he went on to become President of his high school’s American Red Cross club and helped manage the clubs of the Greater Long Beach Chapter. Today, he continues to work with Harvard’s American Red Cross Club and the Massachusetts Bay Chapter. This is his second year on the council.

11.) Stewart Zellars, Member
Stewart has been involved with the American Red Cross for six years. He is currently a sophomore at the University of Georgia, majoring in Economics and Mathematics. He loves working with the American Red Cross, because the atmosphere is so warm and welcoming. Since he has started volunteering, the Red Cross has felt like a home filled with brothers and sisters who share the same passion for volunteering as himself. A fun fact about Stewart is that has a German Red Cross t-shirt, an Italian Red Cross hat, and some Moroccon Red Cross shoelaces.

12.) Melissa Zhu, Member
Melissa is currently a first-year medical student at Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. She has volunteered for the American Red Cross for more than six years now, and has loved every piece of her Red Cross journey! She is a recent Vanderbilt University alumni and was actively involved with the Vanderbilt Red Cross, taking part in a broad spectrum of service projects that stretched across almost all the areas of the Red Cross mission: blood drives, CPR/First Aid/AED training, disaster training and relief, and fundraisers for the Measles Initiative. Early this year, Melissa helped start a national pilot program on International Humanitarian campus training. From high school to medical school, Melissa claims her life would have been much less meaningful if she did not choose the American Red Cross. This is her second year on the council.

Meet our two Youth Advisers!

1.) Bee Kong, Youth Adviser
Bee Kong has been involved with the American Red Cross since 1998 where he served as a youth volunteer at the Greater Long Beach Chapter. During his years as a youth volunteer, Bee was highly involved in Leadership Development Center (LDC) as well as the chapter Youth Executive Board. Upon graduating from UCLA in 2005, Bee began his full time career at the American Red Cross as a Youth Program Specialist and worked to train and inspire a new generation of youth volunteers. Currently, Bee is the Director of Youth and Young Adult Services for the American Red Cross Los Angeles Region and also serves as an advisor to the ARC National Youth Council. In his spare time, Bee enjoys playing in recreational Basketball leagues and collecting rare and expensive items from Star Wars, Transformers, and Macross.

2.) Ellen Valway, Youth Adviser
Ellen is one of two new adult advisers recently appointed to the National Youth Council to serve a three year term. She is originally from the Midwest but what she has loved most about her career is living overseas for 18 years working as a school counselor at three different American Schools in Taiwan, The Netherlands and Dubai. Ellen now lives in Bend, Oregon and loves hiking and cross country skiing in the beautiful mountains there. She works as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Blood Services Region and works with volunteers from eight counties.

Like what you see on redcrossyouth.org? Want to take your awesome volunteer experience with the American Red Cross to the next level? Apply to become a member of the National Youth Council!

Learn about the National Youth Council and apply. The current application process is now closed. Come back in spring 2011 to look for more information on becoming a 2011 American Red Cross National Youth Council applicant.