Jim Young came to the University YMCA as a student in 1966. He co-chaired its PAL program and Freshman Conference and sat on its Board of Directors, and in 1968 he received one of the Y's awards for outstanding student leadership, given by the Bailey Scholarship committee. From 1970 to 1972 he worked on the Y's program staff as a conscientious objector, helping to found the Center for Nonviolent Social Change and to organize the Coalition for Voter Registration, whose campaign won University students the right to register to vote in Champaign County. He went on to community organizing in Chicago and nearly three decades as a United Methodist pastor, came back in 1989–90 as the Y's first director of operations, and has been a Trustee since 2010. In 2013 he received the Edward Nestingen Alumni Award.
As a young Y staff member in 1971–72, Jim Young helped organize the Coalition for Voter Registration, whose campaign won University students the right to register to vote in Champaign County.
.svg)