Teen Trendsetters in Florida Receive Excellence in Leadership Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009
Florida Teen Trendsetters™ Recognized for Excellence in Leadership
Florida high school teens, serving in Volunteer USA’s Teen Trendsetters™ Reading Mentors programs, are being honored this month throughout the state. The students are volunteers for Teen Trendsetters™, which pairs high school students with third-graders for one-on-one weekly mentoring sessions. The goal is to improve the basic reading skills of the younger students and to nurture a volunteer spirit among youth leaders.
The teens were selected based on their outstanding work in mentoring and their overall leadership qualities. The students have excelled with their young mentees, as well as in their own classrooms. The latest data shows, 70% of Florida’s senior Teen Trendsetters™ report they are Bright Futures candidates (in part due to their commitment to Teen Trendsetters™), compared to just 39% of the state’s overall senior class being eligible to receive this college scholarship.
The following students were hand-selected as the best-of- the-best youth mentors. They each received a certificate of excellence as one of Florida’s top Teen Trendsetters™ in 2009.
| Jordan | Watson | Cedar Key High School |
| Brittany | Baine | Fernandina Beach High School |
| Elizabeth | Hailey | West Nassau High School |
| Brittany | McGrail | Ft Walton Beach High |
| Jeff | Leonard | Gulf Breeze High School |
| Soni | Warren | Crooms |
| Lindsay | Maasarani | Winter Springs High School |
| Amanda | Richman | Spruce Creek High School |
| Karen | Vyverberg | Buchholz High School |
| Albert | Delaere | Bayside High School |
| Serena | Clayton | Bayside High School |
| Emily | Keyte | Cocoa High School |
| Stephanie | Bowen | Eau Gallie High School |
| Christy | Scates | Edgewood High School |
| Kevin | Gower | Merritt island High School |
| Ashley | Lipscomb | Rockledge High School |
| Megan | Motley | Viera High School |
| Spencer | Caton | Sebring High School |
| Catherine | Kadechka | Alonso High School |
| Seymone | Parker | Alonso High School |
| Cara | Granada | Belleview High School |
| Heather | Valenti | Dunnellon High School |
| Brittany | Hubner | Forest High School |
| Elizabeth | Kielty | West Port High School |
| Olivia | Pena | Bartow High School |
| Tiffany | Brown | Chain of Lakes High School |
| Maria | Borjas | Lake Region High School |
| Colleen | Murphy | The Villages High School |
| Bekah | Shepherd | The Villages High School |
| Caitlin | McKinney | Wildwood High School |
| Jacqueline | Valle | Atlantic Technical Center |
| Jessica | McFadden | Blanche Ely High School |
| Jazmin | Brown | Boyd Anderson High School |
| Rachel | Fox | Cooper City High School |
| Juliana | Carmona | Coral Glades High School |
| Richard | Frank | Coral Glades High School |
| Kate | Burgess | Deerfield Beach High School |
| Stacy-Ann | Laidley | Flanagan High School |
| Sara | Hand | Fort Lauderdale High School |
| Annette | Prudent | Fort Lauderdale High School |
| Elisabeth | John | JP Taravella High School |
| Trineice | Powell | McFatter Technical High School |
| Jordana | Lorenzo | Monarch High School |
| Vanessa | Cassis | Northeast High School |
| Natalie | Dooling | Pompano Beach High School |
| Danielle | Koushel | South Plantation High School |
| Ja'Kalia | Williams | Stranahan High School |
| Brittny | Renaud | West Broward High School |
| Marissa | Taylor | West Broward High School |
| Tyler | Dimas | Immokalee High School |
| Zachary | O'Brien | Cape Coral High School |
| Josefa | Moody | Cypress Lake High School |
| Ileana | Sanchez | Mariner High School |
| Chase | Sammons | South Fort Myers High School |
| Kent | Blosser | Jensen Beach High School |
| Lauren | Moss | Boynton Beach High School |
| Rosanna | Morrison | Glades Central Community High School |
| Stevenson | Simon | John I. Leonard High School |
| Martika | Chambers-Smith | Palm Beach Lakes High School |
The award-winning Teen Trendsetters™ program began in Florida in 2002 and this year expanded to 11 additional states. There are now 121 active programs across the southeast, with around 5,000 students benefiting. The program also provides Scholastic books for each of the elementary participants to add to their at home libraries.
“It is critical that mentoring programs like Teen Trendsetters exist as a way to help struggling readers as early as the third grade,” said Liza McFadden, president of Volunteer USA Foundation. “These individualized mentoring sessions can go a long way in helping students be better prepared for the first year of FCAT testing. In addition, we know that students who read at or above grade level are much more likely to graduate from high school, setting their path for future success.”
Teen Trendsetters™ is generously sponsored by Comcast, Florida Power & Light and the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. For more information, visit www.teentrendsetters.org.