By Sarah Binning
Another session has come and gone. Time flies when you’re writing articles and creating social change through media! After three months of hard work, our teen editors handed their completed articles to Jessica, our fantastic editor—a moment worthy of celebrating and special recognition. At last night’s awards ceremony, we celebrated the accomplishments of our Fall 2010 teen editors and mentors!
The teens wrote special tribute paragraphs to their mentors, expressing their thanks and reminiscing on memories made this session. Mentors also read paragraphs to their girls, reflecting on the accomplishments of their mentees.
“One thing that I learned from you is while you are doing an interview be friendly, calm, and professional,” Chelsey (right), reads her paragraph to mentor Julia (left) with group member Marshea.
Mentor Megan (right) reads to Cynthia (left): “I want you to remember that the world needs you, that thoughtful, caring, loving inner you. I am privileged to have gotten under your skin to know the real you, and I hope you share that privilege with more and more people who will be lucky to know you as I have been.”
Megan tells mentee De’Shannah (middle), “One day we were having one of our chats … and I’ll never forget what you said: “day by day.” It’s a thought that’s stuck with me since then, inspiring me to keep going.”
“You and Gilesa worked very hard and I loved seeing a friendship form between the two of you that may never happened if it hadn’t been for Teen Voices. I’ll miss our adventures together and finding out fun facts about the two of you while playing the fruit snack game,” mentor Kathleen reads to Lakhala (left) and Gilesa.
But that’s not all. Saun Green, program director, and our six wonderful peer leaders have been carefully observing the teens this session. They created superlatives for each participant that best expressed the girls’ personalities and contributions to Teen Voices. Above, Saun presents superlatives to the Dear D section.
We laughed. We cried. We left with warm hearts and a greater love for Teen Voices!
Thanks again to our wonderful mentors! Front row: Michelle, Rachel, Karen, and Julia. Back row: Jessica (Editor), Ashley A., Kathleen, Megan, Ashley M., Mary and Lydia. Missing from photo: Katie (feel better, Katie!).
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OMG! This award ceremony was so fun. I especially liked how most of the girls got emotional towards their mentors. It’s always nice to see how much love they have for each other. My favorite part was the tribute that the peer leaders did for Ma. I thought it was sooo sweet, and of course I cried. I think that every award ceremony is always fun and it gives everyone a chance to see how much the teen editors accomplished that session.
We had so much fun this past session: I can’t believe it’s already over! But I’m positive we will be seeing all of the girls again. The awards ceremony was so beautiful and emotional. My favorite part was definitely the Peer Leader tribute to ‘Ma’. Can’t wait until next session!!
Award Ceremonies are always amazing! From special tribute to mentor paragrpah everything was so beautiful and touching! The girls build such an amazing relationship with the other teen girls as well as their mentor. Teen Voices is the place to be! I love these girls. I love them even more when they step out of their shell and do a special tribute. Qua especially was amazing with her special tribute dedicated to the peer leader group and to Saun. But our performance topped it all off when we did a special tribute to Patricia, Ma. I love Teen Voices, it has become my second home!
This was a fun session. So many different personalities and a lot of obstacles we overcame–I loved it! The award ceremony was especially fun. It was very intimate this year. Ans I can’t believe we got such an emotional feedback from Ma! Very unexpected. Heres to another fun session at Teen Voices!