Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 4:12 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: Oct. 4, 2003
To do list: Meet with senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill. Check. Go to congressional breakfast co-hosted by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Check. Get pushed by a Secret Service agent while sneaking a peek at Vice President Dick Cheney in his car. Check. Meet President Bush. Rain check.
Sound like the schedule of a top public official? Think again. This demanding agenda belonged to local teen Ambrosia Hafen-Hayes, who represented the Pacific Region in this year's Boys & Girls Club of America National Youth of the Year in Washington.
The 17-year-old Clark County High School senior last month competed against four other finalists to represent the nationally recognized program for the year.
Back in her native Las Vegas, Ambrosia blushed this week as she reflected on her experiences, shrugging away compliments.
"I'm all right," she says. "I'm OK. I'm just me."
But judges at the local, state and regional levels saw much more in the girl who in 1998 had the courage to call Child Protective Services when her mother exhibited bizarre behavior and landed in a mental hospital. Ambrosia spent the next four years in foster care.
In a speech she gave as part of the national competition in Washington, Ambrosia described how her mother set the belongings of the small family -- her, a sister and their mother -- outside one morning, smashed furniture and shredded irreplaceable family photos.
"In a way, those photos signified the end of our old life and ushered in the painful reality of our new one," she told the national judges. "As my backpack slid off my shoulders, I quietly carried things back in; my sister and her friend helped.
"After I finished and started to leave for school, I asked my mother, 'Why?' She could not answer."
During her years in foster care, according to the speech, the Boys & Girls Club "was my only stability. I had found a safe haven, and the staff shared one thing in common ... the fact that they were willing to listen to me and helped me when I needed them.
"The staff had confidence in me and always encouraged me to do my best."
Ambrosia now lives with her mother, who is on medication, and said in her speech she is forgiving her mother.
"Everyone has the choice to let an experience make or break him," she said in the speech. "I am going to let this experience make me ... make me into a stronger person who can be an example to others who have experienced hard times."
"The Boys & Girls Club is one of the main things that's been a positive influence," Ambrosia said. "You know a lot of people have had the same kind of life stories and the same kind of background, but they don't do the same thing with it."
She said the national competition was intimidating, but as she described it, she beamed.
"We had to wear a suit all day," she said. "I had four different suits and I had to wear my hair a certain way, act a certain way, shake hands a certain way. We had to go to a whole orientation on how to talk to the public and what to say at press conferences."
That was just the beginning. Ambrosia and her competitors had to prepare and give speeches to three different panels, one of them consisting of celebrity judges who included a Secret Service agent, the owner of Black Entertainment Television, an editor from Newsweek and a representative of USA Today.
"You are so scared," she said. "There's a lot of people and you are so nervous because it's not just that you're giving your speech, but it's that you're being judged on that speech at the same time."
Despite the nerves, Ambrosia had fun.
"I've never gotten to travel before until I started doing this," she said. "I've traveled more this year than in my life. Anaheim, Calif., Reno, Nev., and Washington, D.C."
Ambrosia added that the competitions were always friendly. She said the five finalists helped each other with their speeches the night before.
The fine-tuning apparently worked. The speeches got a great reaction.
"It's crazy when the audience responds to your speech," she said. "I'm like 'Don't cry.' It does get sad. I could see when I gave my speech people were crying and I really wanted to tell them it was OK."
Among those in the audience was Kathleen Stenberg, unit director at North Las Vegas Boys & Girls Club and personal cheerleader for Ambrosia.
"We're very, very proud of her," Stenberg said. "You know, even as an adult, I look up to her as a role model. She has gone through a lot and has survived a lot. She is a survivor."
Ambrosia's not just a survivor, though. Stenberg said the teen also constantly challenges herself. That's the reason she attends the Academy of Math, Science and Technology at Clark.
"She hates math and science but she decided to go to Clark to get better at it," Stenberg said. "That's where I get inspired by her. If I hate something I try to avoid it."
Stenberg will travel again with Ambrosia to Washington to meet President Bush.
"She didn't get to meet him because of Hurricane Isabel," Stenberg said. "He flew to Camp David before they could meet him. But they will get a chance to fly back out and meet him soon."
That's only the beginning of their adventure. Although Ambrosia did not win the national competition, she will continue to give speeches throughout the country.
"We'll be going to Beverly Hills and Arizona to give speeches in the next couple of months," Stenberg said. "For the next year of her life she'll be doing this kind of stuff. She might not have won nationals but we still came back big winners and she still will be traveling and doing stuff.' "
According to Stenberg, Ambrosia's success has inspired other youths to follow in her footsteps.
"Her picture is on the Internet on the Boys & Girls Club website and one of the kids looked at that and said 'I want to do that.' I think that is a big inspiration. She's a big mentor."
Co-worker Kristy Garay ssid Ambrosia is a great leader and motivator for the club.
"Ambrosia is great, always helping out whenever she can," she said. "She's the type of person that whenever she has an opportunity she's going to take it."
For more information on the Boys & Girls Club of America, visit bgca.org.
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