Participants in the city of Little Rock's Summer Youth Employment Program benefited a second year from the Inclusion & Multicultural 700 Youth Empowerment Summit, presented to them by Supha Xayprasith-Mays and held July 13 in the Chenal Country Club ballroom.
A host of speakers from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston and Memphis, as well as Arkansas, addressed the teenagers on such topics as self-esteem, education, careers and finances/money management. Local speakers were Daryl Bassett, director of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services; Don Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System; John Bowen, group vice president for Acxiom; Joseph Jones, president of Arkansas Baptist College; Jerry Pavlas, president and chief executive officer, OneBank; and former Supreme Court Justice Richard Mays Sr., founder of the law firm Mays, Byrd & Associates.
The summit consisted of breakfast and lunch sessions. Young male participants received a gift of a tie, along with instructions from male presenters and attendees on how to tie them. Each young female participant was given a fashionable scarf.
That evening, the Mayses hosted a reception, complete with heavy hors d'oeuvres and libations, for speakers and sponsors at their west Little Rock home. Supha Xayprasith-Mays is the founder and publisher of Inclusion magazine and the Multicultural Expo Center in North Little Rock.
-- Story and photos by Helaine R. Williams
High Profile on 07/23/2017