Kalaeb Tannock was certain he’d join the family business after high school.

He was bored with his studies and saw plumbing as his only real career prospect.

And then he learnt about Raleigh International. The global organisation helps empower youth who are at risk.

“I knew I had to join,” the 18-year-old said. “I was in a learning support class at Berkeley. I was bored. I wasn’t being challenged. In my fourth year I realised something needed to change.”

He immediately signed up and spent ten weeks with Raleigh in Tanzania last summer.

The trip was an education right from the beginning; the group missed their flight to Boston.

“I didn’t sleep the whole way,” he said. “I was determined that we were going to get on all [the rest of] our flights.”

The teenager spent three weeks trekking through harsh, sometimes mountainous, terrain, and then two days in a Masai camp.

“Everyone was just so welcoming,” he said.

Several days were spent digging a water storage trench for a village suffering from drought.

“It was so hot we had to wait until it was cooler in the afternoon to work,” he said. “It was about 90F. The trenches were to store water from a well.”

He described the trip as “crazy fun”.

“I loved it out there,” he said. “I want to go back so badly, now.”

Once he got back to Bermuda he volunteered with Raleigh’s next crop of students.

“I am helping the younger kids to learn and challenge themselves,” he said. “It is definitely different for me.”

This month he won Raleigh’s Michael J Spurling Award for engagement, volunteerism and advocacy.

“At the prizegiving, I tried not to expect anything,” he said. “I knew I had changed through Raleigh, but so had my team-mates.”

He was overjoyed when his name was called.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.

He would eventually like to become a programme leader, but he can’t do that until he is 25 years old.

“I am definitely staying involved until that time,” he said.

Now he dreams of going on the Raleigh Borneo trip next year.

“I’ve been working for my father’s plumbing business,” he said. “I’ve told my father, I might not be here to help him all the time. I think I’d like to go to college. I’d like to study creative writing or zoology. I’ve loved animals since I was a child.”

His love of poetry led him to arts charity Chewstick.

“Chewstick helped me find my voice, but Raleigh dug it out and said, ‘Here, use your voice and be a leader’,” he said.

Yin’nikkei Bartley thought she was done with school after she graduated from CedarBridge Academy.

“I thought I’d just get a job,” she said.

The real world was harder than she thought.

The 19-year-old has struggled to find full-time employment. She currently works at a nail salon on the weekends.

She joined Raleigh International in 2014 to get her life on track.

“I was unsure what to do with my life,” she said. “In school I was very laid-back and nonchalant. I did not think much about the future. I had interests, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.”

She went with the group to Tanzania and was amazed by the different mindset there.

“Everyone was very calm and collected,” she said. “Everyone was so peaceful. It was like being in a very different environment from here.”

She helped dig out the foundation for an early child care development centre and also set up bee hives for farmers.

“This was to stop the elephants from invading the crops and the land,” she said. “The elephants are scared of the bees.”

Her time in Tanzania changed her life.

“I learnt not to take things for granted,” she said. “I learnt to keep working through the difficult times.”

Her life plan has also evolved.

“Before, I only had simple goals, but now I have long-term goals,” she said.

She loves cosmetology, therapy and children. She is now hoping to go to college to pursue one of her passions; she’s not yet sure which one.

“Right now, I’d just like to find a full-time job,” she said. “At least now, I have a road map to get to those goals.”

Miss Bartley’s peers this year selected her as winner of the Malcolm K Outerbridge Transformation Award.

“When I realised it was me they were calling I was filled with joy to see that I transformed and everyone noticed it.”