By Anna Bedell

The 18-year-old Bristol native who won this year’s Boys and Girls Club National Youth of the Year award said she is looking forward to getting her education in social work and bringing what she learns back to the place that fostered her.

“It’s pretty much the highest honor club kid can receive,” said Brianna Parker. “It’s an amazing experience that you would go through, it is a little bit tricky because you do have to write a lot of speeches and practice how to public speak and everything like that.”

Parker, who attends Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), won the Connecticut and the Northeast region awards for the Boys and Girls Club on her way to the national award.

Parker said it is worth it to have such a great experience by meeting new people.

“You just learned so much about yourself in the process,” said Parker.

“I competed in the Bristol competition, which was a couple people from Bristol, and then competed in the Connecticut one, which was a couple other club kids from Connecticut,” said Parker.  “Then I went on to the northeast region with a bunch of other kids in the Northeast region.”

She found out that she won the National Youth of the Year award late in September. Nicole Spear, who is the program director at the Boys and Girls Club of Bristol, nominated Parker.  

“I got awarded with a $72,000 scholarship and a brand-new car,” said Parker.  

She believes it’s going to be a Toyota Corolla, either a ’21 or ’22, she said.

Parker is in a pre-graduate program at CCSU.

“I’m excited to actually have that scholarship so that I can actually go far as in my master’s degree in social work,” said Parker.

She talked about having a difficult childhood with not too many people that were supportive.

“It was a really tough time in my life, and I felt like I needed that guidance and until I came to the club when I was nine years old,” said Parker. “I really didn’t have that person to talk to when that person would be there for me.”

Parker said she wants to get involved in that field and bring all those skills back to her boys and girls club.

She wants to make sure that all the children at the Boys and Girls Club, not just in Bristol but everywhere, have someone to talk to you and have someone to trust.

“I started coming to the Boys and Girls Club, when I was nine years old,” said Parker. “As soon as I came in it was such a welcoming environment and there are so many staff and other friends there that I’ve had.”

She said she was very nervous at first because she had never been to an after-school program, but it was just an amazing experience for her.

“We had gotten a brand-new Boys and Girls Club in 2014, so I merged first in that, I was actually Student of the Month in 2014,” said Parker. “We had a lot to do, they had a lot of activities when we first opened, and I was actually involved in almost every single program.”  

Parker was involved with the robotics programs, to cooking for Smart Girls, and she now helps run the robotics program as well as the Smart Girls program.

“Smart Girls is a program that empowers the youngest members, as in the younger girls just to know their worth and learn how to take care of themselves as they grow older,” said Parker.  “It’s definitely a self confidence booster, and we do a bunch of fun activities for the girls.

She said they have the same for the boys, called “passport to manhood.”  

“My long-term goal is to finish up my master’s degree in social work and probably my doctoral degree,” said Parker. “I want to start working in the school system like an elementary school for social work, and then I want to bring my skills back to my Boys and Girls Club of Bristol.”  

Parker said she may even work in other boys and girls clubs and it’s a passion of hers to be a social worker.