Southwest Youth Leadership Conferences

Southwest
Youth Leadership Conferences
Sponsored by:
Region VIII, Military Order of the World Wars
All Chapters of the Military Order of the World Wars in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas
with funding by Texas Patriotic Education Foundation, Inc. (IRS 501(c)(3))
Affiliated Sponsoring Organizations
Seidel Chapter, Air Force Association
Dallas Council, Navy League
The Leadership Foundation of American Values
National Sojourners, Inc.:
Anson Jones Chapter (Austin, TX)
Audie Murphy Chapter (North TX)
Beauregard-Anderson Chapter (Alexandria, LA)
Bob Scott Chapter (Waco, TX)
Brazos Valley Chapter (College Station, TX)
Fort Sam Houston Chapter (San Antonio, TX)
John J. Harris Chapter (Corpus Christi, TX)
Tinker Chapter (central, OK)

A Youth Leadership Conference (YLC) is a program to teach high school students leadership, Americanism, patriotism and the American Free Enterprise system, the basic fundamentals of citizenship.

The program is sponsored by the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW), a national patriotic and veteran's organization, chartered by the U. S. Congress.

For more information about the MOWW, see: www.moww.org.

The YLC program of the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) began in the early 1980s patterned after the Freedom Foundation, Inc. program at Valley Forge, PA. The program was deemed to be both important to the youth and future leaders of our nation, and that it could be done on a local basis. This would save the cost of transporting students from around the country to and from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

The MOWW formed a committee and thus began the program. The general guidelines of the Freedom Foundation, Inc. program were adopted to include the following three areas of concentration:

Leadership at 50% of instruction;
Patriotism and Americanism at 30% of instruction;
and the American Free Enterprise System at 20% of instruction.

The first YLC was held at St. Augustine, Florida. Other areas of the country established YLCs to include Monterey, CA and Oklahoma City, OK. By the middle of the 1980s, the number had grown to ten YLCs around the country.

Region VIII of the MOWW (comprising the states of Texas and Oklahoma) meeting in November 1997, decided to create YLCs within the region and to also create a foundation to assist in the funding of the YLCs. The Texas Patriotic Education Foundation, Inc., (TX PEF, Inc.) was established on 18 November 1997 and the region held the first YLC in June 1998 at Fort Hood, Texas.

Since then 113 additional YLCs have been held for a total of 114 at twelve total venues:
USS Lexington Museum, Corpus Christi, TX (29 YLCs) established in 1999;
Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK (20 YLCs) reestablished in 2000;
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (18 YLCs) established in 2002;
Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, TX (15 YLCs) established in 2005;
Central Texas College, Killeen, TX (8 YLCs) held 2007-2014;
Fort Hood, Killeen, TX (5 additional YLCs for a total of 6), held 1998-2003;
Texas Military Institute, San Antonio, TX (6 YLCs) held 2002-2005;
University of Texas at San Antonio, TX (4 YLCs) held 2007-2010;
St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX (4 YLCs) held 2013-2016;
University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (2 YLCs) held 2018-2019;
Camp Carter, Fort Worth, TX, (1 YLC) held in 2004;
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX (1 YLC) held in 2011.

Dates at the following locations:

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