Youth Advisory Board
The Youth Advisory Board is composed of student leaders who have completed the Soul Stories curriculum and are inspired to make an impact on the mental health of youth. These students are paid for their time to make our curriculum youth-centered by actively developing new activities, reforming our modules, and brainstorming how we can better support struggling young people. Members have the opportunity to train as youth-facilitators, then lead workshops while our staff take the backseat, in keeping with our ultimate goal of equipping youth with the tools they need to establish a strong sense of self and capacity for leadership.
Elijah Goss
Board Member
Elijah Goss is a rising Junior at Santa Clara University. He is a Marketing major with a double minor in Entrepreneurship & Retail Studies. He is a nationally recognized poet and public speaker through his company GossTwinsMedia speaking and performing at a plethora of events and conferences throughout the continental USA. He loves to write poems, and fictional stories, and hopes that his words will continue to inspire minority youth to speak up and follow their passions. He is excited to begin this journey with Soul Stories because he believes that he can add a unique and motivated perspective to the Soul Story experience and learn from and make meaningful connections with the amazing team he'll be working with.
Elias Goss
Board Member
Elias Goss is a rising junior at UC Berkeley studying Business Administration. He is a poet and writer who advocates for the upward mobility of low income youth within public and private education through a social impact organization he started with his brother. He aspires to one day be a model for radical hope. From his academics to his career in public speaking, to his engagement here at Soul Stories, he has fostered that change, that power, those principles because "Knowledge unfits a man to be a slave" - Fredrick Douglass
Donell Dyas
Board Member
Donell is a multifaceted artist whose work spans across acrylic painting, muralism, poetry, and directing. Within Donell's first year of painting, he led his first art exhibit, whose themes explored what it means to move from one location to another while also growing over the years and having to adapt to both situations. There are three staples Donnell chooses to question through his works. First, what does it mean to be an African-American human, where are we truly from, and what is our trajectory? Second, how far can this kid from Denver, Colorado go within the art world? And last, how through art do we inspire the next generation to not fall into the same mistakes that we make today?
Nathan Kao
Board Member
Nathan Kao is a rising sophomore at CU Boulder studying Computer Science. He is a builder and creator, balancing together technology and software with creative projects. He advocates for expanding the intersecting boundaries of creativity, art, and technology, aspiring to one day build and use tools as a lever to help creators achieve greater heights within art.