Meet Fia Leatham, a member of this year’s Youth Impact Council, PWA’s student-led advisory team. In addition to her role on the council, Fia also serves as this year’s Student Representative to the Board of Directors.
As a member of the Youth Impact Council, Fia collaborates with student leaders from across PWA’s partner districts and engages in discussions about leadership and career readiness with PWA board members. Currently, Fia and the Youth Impact Council are focused on expanding student engagement opportunities for the upcoming NW Youth Careers Expo.
One of their projects includes putting together a “Welcome Video,” which will be shown to all students, educators and community members attending this year’s Careers Expo. Born out of an idea that came from the Youth Impact Council, this year’s video will include an Inclusion Statement to emphasize that students from all backgrounds are welcome at the Expo.
In addition to collaborating with her peers on this project and attending monthly Youth Impact Council meetings, Fia also attends PWA Board Meetings, sharing her input and insight to PWA’s 27-member board and committee.
Learn more about Fia’s background, career interests and what brought her to PWA:
Tell us about yourself!
I’m Fia, I’m a junior at Rex Putnam High School and I am really excited to be here. This is a completely new experience for me and I am absolutely loving it so far. I’m having a great time.
What are you involved with at school?
In my school, I’m in the IB [International Baccalaureate] program, so that’s what takes up the majority of my time. If you don’t know, that's a diploma that gets you international secondary school qualifications, so my diploma won’t just work in the US but internationally. I’m also a registered thespian, so I do plays and musicals with my school’s theater department and that's a lot of fun.
What do you like to do outside of school?
Outside of school I don't really do much other than read and do my homework. Sometimes I play my bass and the piano because I'm a little bit of a musician. That's really just the basics of who I am as a person.
What are your future career interests?
In the future, I really want to do something with computers and software because it's just really interesting to me. When I was a kid I really wanted to be an astronaut or something so maybe they could go together, but I don’t know yet. I'm just a kid still.
Why did you get involved in PWA?
Before this I never heard of PWA, like at all whatsoever. I was so out of the loop until one of my teachers posted the link to the Youth Impact Council opportunity and I read up on it and I was like, “Oh my goodness this is incredible! I love this, and I want to be a part of this.” So here I am! And by some great luck I’m also the student representative – yay!
What perspective do you bring to PWA?
I really hope that I can contribute a new perspective and some new ideas. Nobody can really be too unique, but it’s also really hard to find somebody with my same background and ideas and perspective, and also I’m young, I’m a kid, I have so many new ideas, so many new perspectives to share with you all and so I’m just so excited to be here.
