Youth center director to attend Harvard Leadership Summit

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – For 26 years Carrie Basaca, 60th Force Support Squadron Travis Youth Center director, has worked with youth from the Philippines to the United States. She started teaching in 1991 and has served in one way or another as a teacher of children in six countries.

In June 2014, she became the director of the youth center at Travis Air Force Base, California. Today, she leads a team of 35 people implementing programs for more than 1,000 children annually. The center provides a range of services including before and after school care, a youth sports program, as well as music and dance lessons for children as young as 5 and young adults up to 18 years old.

Basaca will soon join 59 senior leaders from the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is affiliated with Air Force Youth Programs, at the second annual Harvard Leadership Summit.

According to BGCA, the summit is a year-long development program designed to raise the organization’s collective leadership abilities and solve the most pressing challenges facing clubs and military-affiliated programs.

“I’m honored to have been chosen as a participant in the leadership summit,” said Basaca. “This is a rare opportunity to learn from an establishment with such a legacy of prestige and success, alongside other leaders with a shared mission and to use what I have learned to deepen my impact locally and nationally.”

“BGCA programs and initiatives are part of Air Force Youth Program requirements,” said Basaca. “I supervise youth development staff as they work to implement BGCA programs such as Torch Club, Keystone Club, Passports to Manhood and Money Matters in our youth center.”

Basaca will bring nearly three decades of experience working with children with her to the summit. She’s taught English and math classes in her home country, the Philippines, served as a preschool teacher in Japan and as the school age coordinator at bases in England and Turkey.

She said it’s important to nurture and develop all children, but that military children endure unique challenges.  

“The children of our military and civilian personnel deserve our utmost care each and every day,” she said. “They go through a lot of stress that come with deployments, separations and 24/7 operations. We take pride in ensuring we provide quality care. The greatest reward is knowing that we are making a difference in the lives of children, seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter.”

The summit, which is a collaboration between BGCA and Harvard Business School, will feature regional and national conferences with the first scheduled May 9 – 12 in Dallas.

In June, attendees will travel to Boston to attend a five-day HBS in-residence program followed by a conference in Atlanta in October. The conferences will feature exercises, case studies and presentations from HBS faculty, all focused on solving the most pressing challenges facing the BGCA.

Basaca will be one of only eight military-affiliated leaders at the summit.

“I nominated (Basaca) for this opportunity because she is an exemplary leader,” said Gregory Doss, BGCA Director of Organizational Development and Military and Outreach Services. “Her youth center continuously strives to ensure youth attending its programs experience optimal club opportunities. The programs at Travis encourage youth to reach their full potential.”

“During the summit, she will have the opportunity to share her leadership insight with others in the BGCA,” said Doss “She will also have the chance to educate others about military-serving organizations.”

Basaca said she’s looking forward to attending the summit and learning from others.

“I’m really excited to meet my counterparts and see how their traditional clubs provide care for children, the impact those clubs have on children and see how that differs from a military- affiliated club,” said Basaca. “I’m also looking forward to sharing challenges, successes and ideas to improve our programs and quality of care.”