As part of our end-of-year mini-grant initiative, the Mel and Leta Ramos Foundation contributed to YAX core programming, especially its Youth Advisory Board. YAX’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) is a group of high school students that demonstrate the highest rung on the ladder of leadership at the organization. Students help create, lead, and support YAX programs, and its members have been program participants, interns, classroom and teaching assistants- or those who have just stood out as exceptional- and have aspired to inform program development, implementation, and strategic initiatives. YAB members select staff and faculty members, evaluate programs, and provide the youth perspective to our work. YAB members write grants, plan events, advocate for arts education and are the voice of young artists in San Francisco.