Denzell Perry (center) and four other Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year met with President Obama last week. Photo courtesy of Boys & Girls Club of America.

Last week, 18 year-old Denzell Perry was one of five leadership-oriented teens who met with President Obama at the White House to share findings of a recent youth study conducted by Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Perry—Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Pacific region Youth of the Year and an employee of both Cabrillo High School and the Long Beach Boys & Girls Club—along with the other four Youth of the Year told the president about the issues affecting young people across the country and encouraged him to form a Teen Advisory Committee as part of the National Commission on Children.

The results of the study, as well as the call for the formation of a Teen Advisory Committee to address youth issues, were presented to the public later in the week during the Boys & Girls Club of America’s annual State of the Youth address, which was hosted by Youth of the Year Trei Dudley and broadcast live online.

“Last September, the Boys & Girls Club surveyed thousands of teens throughout the nation through our teen-oriented website and we found out a lot of different things,” Perry says. “The main thing that was revealed is that young people are quite worried about their future. They want to know that jobs are going to be available for them and that college educations and scholarships will be there. Especially in places like Long Beach, Compton, Watts—the areas I grew up in—where there are a lot of things we have to worry about on top of our education.”

Perry was raised by a single mother in Compton and joined the Watts/Willowbrook Boys & Girls Club when he was six years-old. As he got older, he became more active in the club and his community, becoming a member of the Junior Staff program and serving as student body president at Dominguez High School.

After graduating from high school last year, Perry got a job as a college counselor at Long Beach’s Cabrillo High School and today he plays triple duty since starting his pre-law studies at UC Irvine and taking another job as Teen Director at the Long Beach Boys and Girls Club, located across the street from Cabrillo.

“At Cabrillo, a lot of kids are served by the Long Beach Boys & Girls Club, so I have access to work with them at both school and at the club,” Perry says. “I can push them from both sides and enforce the same things. For me, it’s about giving back. I look at that what the Boys & Girls Club did for me when I was growing up and now I think, ‘How I can give back to the kids I serve?'”

Perry’s trip to Washington D.C. was a defining moment for not only the accomplished Youth of the Year and the Boys & Girls Club, but also for youth and teens across the country who the survey showed do not feel that their issues are being addressed. According to the survey results, only 10 percent of youth are confident that our nation’s leaders will address teen issues and more than 60 percent are concerned about obtaining jobs after school and youth violence.

These statistics spurred the Boys & Girls Club to partner with other nonprofits such as Save the Children to request that the White House form a Teen Advisory Committee. A petition has been started online to generate signatures supporting such a committee.

“It’s been an amazing journey to be able to represent my fellow youth throughout the years,” says Perry. “I sat on the school board as a student board member during my senior year of high school and was able to see how important it is for us to have young person’s opinion. Now I think of a Teen Advisory Committee and how big of an impact would it make.”

To watch the State of the Youth address or sign the petition to request the White House form a Teen Advisory Committee, visit the Boys & Girls Club of America’s website.