The time has come to highlight our final awardee from the 2019 Rockstar Awards! Last year was such a wonderful time for youth advocacy, and the winner of the Marlene Matarese Advocate for Youth of the Year was a big part of that work! Aaron Boswell exemplifies the Youth MOVE vision, and we are excited to feature him. We caught up with Aaron for a quick update since his win last year.
Note, October 2nd is the deadline to nominate for the 2020 awards!
Here’s what he had to say:
During the year of 2019, Aaron continued his education and his goals of becoming a Statewide Youth Coordinator. During this time, he met the love of his wife and now wife whom he married in March of 2020. Aaron obtained his dream job as Statewide Youth Coordinator, and graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. Now in his role as Statewide Youth Coordinator Aaron continues his efforts to have Youth Voice heard and youth choice honored.
From Aaron’s nomination
Aaron has been a powerful advocate for youth after going through various child-serving systems and serving on the state advisory board LUVYA (Leaders Uniting Voices Youth Advocates). Aaron has shown exemplary leadership skills and passion as he strives to make youth systems more youth-driven and engaging. Recently, Aaron co-trained a train the trainer for our Youth Engagement Training with 12 youth in foster care and 7 adult professional youth workers, in which these trainers went on to train 500 adults.
Aaron is always a strong encouraging voice for youth to share their experience and be the best they can be and he does whatever he can to help them. He has had a key role in our newly developing Social Media 101 training to train adult professionals to engage youth through social media. He also has been a part of a pilot project to create a tool and assess youth providers on their youth friendliness and accessibility. Aaron is always ready and willing to present and speak to state stakeholders on panels, presentations, and advisory boards. He is finishing up his psychology degree and looks to continue advocating and helping youth and youth adults. Aaron is one of a kind young man and has already left a huge stamp on NM’s youth engagement efforts.
