OXNARD : Student Heads for Meetings in Britain

An Oxnard teen-ager who helped organized a conference that allowed 300 youths to share their concerns and offer solutions to inner-city problems was rewarded with a trip to England, Scotland and Wales to meet with youths there about urban problems.

Nineteen-year-old Stephanie Sunwoo, a senior at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, was picked, along with 19 others, for her leadership work involving youths after the Los Angeles riots last year. The group left for Europe on Saturday.

Sunwoo and the others are members of the Youth Task Force L.A. program, established by the Constitutional Rights Foundation last year to involve youths in the rebuilding of the city. The Los Angeles-based foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose aim is to teach young people to be more effective citizens.

The trip is sponsored by the foundation, along with Rebuild L.A., British Airways, the British American Chamber of Commerce and the British Consulate General.

Sunwoo is a visual arts major at the Los Angeles high school. She lives in Los Angeles during the week and in her Oxnard home on weekends.

As a member of the task force, she was involved in one of 30 neighborhood action teams that did everything from cleaning up a local park overrun by gangs and drugs to coordinating after-school tutoring for younger children.

Her major contribution was helping organize the Jan. 8 youth conference on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles. The conference was an opportunity for youth to see a variety of community leaders and glean leadership skills.

“We’re youth working together,” she said. “We’re part of the solution.”