With the help of The Immokalee Foundation, the Greater Immokalee Front Porch Youth Empowerment Academy (YEA) held its second annual conference this summer in Immokalee, giving five highly driven students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, become better résumé writers, gain workplace experience, and generally grow on personal and professional levels. Above, the five students who participated in this year’s YEA pose for a picture with YEA leaders.

As part of the YEA experience, each student was asked to write an essay that answers the question: "What is your defintion of poverty and what would you do to change the way poverty looks in your community?" Click here to read the TIF student responses.