WDRC Youth Program Welcomes New Faces

This fall, the WDRC Youth Program has had the privilege of welcoming two new faces. Rebecca Hargraves joined us as our new AmeriCorps Youth Conflict Resolution Education Specialist, and Alana Patterman joined us as a Youth Program intern.

Meet Becca

Rebecca is very excited to begin serving as the AmeriCorps Youth Program Specialist at the Whatcom Dispute Resolution this year! She just recently graduated from Western Washington University with an interdisciplinary degree from Fairhaven College in Psychology, Youth Development, and Social Justice. As a student, she loved volunteering to work with youth throughout Whatcom County, and she can’t wait to continue that work by serving in this position.  She originally is from Santa Cruz, CA and enjoys that Bellingham also has plenty of trees and a beautiful waterfront!

Rebecca loves the Youth Program and the WDRC’s focus on promoting healthy and open communication. She also has a passion for poetry and is excited to help with this year’s Youth Peace Poetry Contest. For fun, she loves writing, listening to music, going for long walks, cooking with friends, and catching up with her family in California.

Meet Alana

Alana Patterman is a student at Western Washington University in the Human Services program. She came to the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center for an opportunity in an internship after attending Western Washington University’s Internship Fair in winter quarter of 2017, and immediately gaining interest in what they do. She also registered for a very specific class at Western that would help her gain more knowledge in conflict resolution.

She will plan to eventually attend the mediation trainings upon graduating from Western, and hopes to continue her work within the WDRC to serve them and the community.

She possesses a strong drive for helping others, and also innately possesses a passionate desire to resolve problems. She wishes to be of great value to the WDRC and its community by helping everyone involved in it, and very much hopes to be able to use her skills to build trust and offer many resources to others.