SWANA YP 2021 End-of-Year Recap

By: Sonia Samir, SWANA YP-BOD Rep

It has been a great year for SWANA YPs where we finally got to see each other in person at WASTECON^® 2021 after almost two years. WASTECON is one of the most attended events for solid waste professionals where more than 70 YPs attended this year’s WASTECON. YP networking events, ethics sessions, games, resume reviews and mock interviews were highlights for YPs during this year’s event.

While we are still slowly getting back to in-person events, our new normal “virtual” and/or “hybrid” events were equally well attended. SWANA YPs had their first virtual Student Design Competition in March and virtual YP Annual Meeting in October. Both virtual events were very well attended as attendees cheered on seven university teams tackling solutions for closing the Bakoteh Dumpsite in Kanifing, The Gambia during the Student Design Competition and utilized their individual leadership styles during mock industry scenarios during the YP Annual Meeting.

Our revamped YP Webinars continue to be a huge success with previous topics around PFAS regulations and identifying personal leadership styles. We also launched a new YP membership checklist to help guide young professionals through their first three years of membership and increase YP Engagement. In addition, the SWANA YP group continued to evolve through YP Representation at the local, regional, and national levels with more than 60 YP volunteers and counting.

A big shout out to Hailey Tatum, Bentley Higgs, Ashley Evans, Karam Singh, Nicole Burkhardt, Mateja Vidovic Klanac, Alex Thomas, and Wes Glakas for their tireless effort and leading these SWANA YP programs to be continued success!

The new year is also looking bright for younger industry professionals with SWANA’s first ever YP Leadership Academy recently launched by SWANA YPs to create the next generation of leaders for this great industry. Look out for more information on the class of 2022 coming soon!  We hope to see more industry young professionals joining us next year as we work together to build-up each other, our organizations, and this amazing industry we work in.

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year 2022!

NOT A SWANA YP MEMBER?

Visit www.swana.org/YP411 to learn more about the group and become a YP member at the special discounted rate for full access to mentors, job openings, discounted webinars, and more! Or sign-up for SWANA’s YP Community forum for FREE to engage in industry discussions and receive updates on all things “YP”.

Employers: Share the gift of membership with your YP employees at www.swana.org/join to equip the next generation of industry professionals.