On Nov. 9, the Central California (CC) Jr. YBA hosted the 64th annual conference at the Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple.
The CC Jr. YBA conferences are a fun opportunity for eighth-through-12th-grade Jodo Shinshu Buddhists from around the BCA to connect and learn through Buddhism.
Ninety-seven delegates and 13 CC Jr. YBA members and two CC Jr. YBA alums from Fresno and Reedley participated in this year’s conference.
Delegates came from Berkeley Ohtani, Berkeley Sangha, Mountain View, Oregon, Oxnard, Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Senshin in Los Angeles and Stockton.
This year’s theme was “BEND: Balance Every New Day,” inspired by Nickelodeon's animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” We chose this theme because practicing balance from managing responsibilities to relationships can help to maximize fulfillment in everyday life.
Our conference consisted of morning service and the keynote presentation, followed by a group picture taken by Nakamichi Photography, an icebreaker for groups to get to know each other, workshops, lunch and a talent show, closing remarks, shaved ice, dinner, slideshow, dessert and a dance.
We were honored to have Center for Buddhist Education Youth Coordinator Koichi Mizushima as our keynote speaker this year. He gave an amazing talk on how maintaining balance in life can come from having a flexible perspective.
With the help of Sangha members and parents from Reedley and Fresno temples, we designed four workshops aligned with the theme. Our onigiri workshop involved participants creating onigiri based on taste and creativity with a variety of traditional and nontraditional fillings.
We included a tai chi workshop as a way to illustrate how balancing daily life can be different for everyone. For example, it can be balancing or stretching one’s perspective mentally, and or physically.
In addition, we included a discussion workshop to encourage delegates to share and hopefully learn from each other's perspectives on how the theme relates to Buddhism in their everyday life.
For our team building workshop, our leader challenged delegates to work with each other and collaborate based on their personality styles.
In this year’s talent show, we had several strong entries who all incorporated their unique interpretations of balance into their performances wonderfully.
On behalf of the CC Jr. YBA, we would like to thank everyone who attended this year’s conference and helped to make the experience possible! We hope everyone had a fun time meeting new people and getting a chance to catch up with old friends. We look forward to seeing everyone again and new faces next year and at other events.
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