Welcome to LEAH's Quarterly Newsletter! | In This Edition You'll Find: |
- Announcements
- Youth Shout Outs
- What LEAH Has Been Up To
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Announcements
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Join Us in Welcoming Our Newest Summer Cohort
by Paul Gregg
We have 44 amazing new young people joining LEAH this summer as part of the LEAH Daly and LEAH Knox internships. Each of them submitted written applications, got teacher recommendations, wowed us in interviews, and were selected by their peers (current youth leaders) as those who most reflect the spirit of LEAH and the goals of this program.
During the school year, these individuals attend 18 different high schools, but this summer they’ll be together for hours every day, figuring out lab techniques, exploring Kendall Square, and bonding in LEAH workshops.
We can’t wait to welcome them all to the famiLEAH!
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Meet Francesca,
Our New Northeastern Co-Op!
Francesca Borriello (she/her) will join the LEAH team as our Northeastern Co-Op Program Assistant on July 1st. She will be with the LEAH team through the Fall and a bit of the Winter. Francesca describes herself as a creative, proactive, people-oriented person. Most recently, she completed a six-month co-op for the City of Boston in the Office of Youth Engagement and Advancement, where she worked alongside city officials to enrich programming, initiatives, and community-based projects for Boston's youth. She is also interested in community development and public policy. This is very fitting as Francesca is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Northeastern.
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Save the Date for
LEAH's Summer Symposium!
LEAH will be hosting our annual Summer Symposium at the beginning of August. This is a special event as our youth leaders get to showcase the incredible work and projects they have done over the summer.
As a member of the famiLEAH, YOU'RE INVITED!
Please take a moment to mark Thursday, August 8th, 2024 from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex - 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge MA 02139 in your calendar to ensure that the famiLEAH can come together and celebrate our youth leaders. Expect a night full of science, recognition, and community, more details will be sure to come!
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Youth Shout Outs
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A Big Congratulations to
the Class of 2024!
by Jonathan Ogunleye
“As we go on, we remember all the time we had together.” The lyrics to the chorus of the 1999 pop hit “Graduation (Friends Forever)” ring true for me as I think of LEAH’s graduating seniors. From casual conversations to curated workshops to college visits, each moment we’ve shared has been special. We’ve made memories that I’ll forever cherish and honor. Whether you joined the summer before your junior year or at the start of senior year, you all have been an instrumental part of the LEAH community.
To the Class of 2024, the journey you are about to embark on, now that you have concluded high school, is special because it is your journey. Always remember that! You have the tools and resources that you will need to make the tough (and easy) decisions.
And, of course, the famiLEAH will be right there forever cheering for you!
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Congratulations to Andrew Pierre, a.k.a. the "New MYC member of the Year!"
Andrew Pierre (he/him) explained his initial intentions of joining the Mayor's Youth Council (MYC) as wanting an internship, "...and thought it’d be cool to be involved." Andrew added that as time passed, he met with many different students across the city already doing great work and felt like he had to give more. Andrew knew during his MYC interview that he wanted to join the Schools Committee, "I had mainly been thinking about the experiences I had in school and teaching. In my time at MYC, I feel [that] I was encouraged to pour much more time and thought into it than expected, finding more and more reason to work each meeting."
Andrew then describes how impactful the community collaborations were to his growth in the MYC, "I was lucky to be able to work together with BPS' Teaching and Learning Office, and being named New Member of the Year was a moment where I realized how much more I had gotten out of MYC than I planned."
Andrew finished his reflection by adding that, "Being part of LEAH helped me get there because it gave me a great place to start, and the things I’ve learned still help me to this day!"
"My experience as a LEAH youth leader last year can be described as me trying to come out of my shell and learn to work with new people while also learning how I’d like to carry myself! I enjoyed teaching STEM subjects that I personally thought were cool, and I believe this job was the point where I became deeply invested in both my own and others’ education."
A big congratulations to Andrew, we can't wait to see what you do next!
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Congratulations to
Matthew Marter & Anh Ha
for Creating the Nature Club!
In 2023, Matthew Marter established the Nature Club at Excel High School with a vision to leave a meaningful impact on the community. Despite it being his first and final year leading the club, Matthew rallied fellow students and volunteers to join the cause, such as fellow LEAH youth leader Anh Ha. The club’s core mission was to connect students with the wonders of nature and gardening. Initially, financial constraints posed a challenge.
However, with support from teachers and school administrators, the Nature Club secured the necessary materials to kickstart its initiatives. Sustainability became a central theme—the goal was to create a self-sustaining model that would require minimal external assistance in the future. The idea was basically to sell vegetable plants for customers to then plant in their own yards and or other potential areas. Throughout the year, the club faced trials and tribulations while nurturing plants and expanding its operations. Matthew and Anh had a lot to figure out, like agreeing on what plants the club should grow and finding out where to sell them. Eventually, they sold their plants in Roslindale's Thrift Shop.
Anh comments, "Throughout the day business was booming. We were selling a lot of plants and met a lot of really cool and nice people. Although I was shy with dealing with customers Matthew helped and encouraged me to get outside my bubble and be more open to talking with strangers. All in all, [the club] made around $600 in profit!"
With these funds, the club hopes to plan field trips to the Arnold Arboretum, host fun activities for club members, and prepare for next year.
Anh concludes "Armed with this experience this year, we aim to optimize their processes for the upcoming year, ensuring smoother functioning and better profits for next year. "
A big congratulations to Matthew and Anh, we can't wait to see what you do next!
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Congratulations to Presley Simelus,
our very own Debate National Finalist!
We are delighted to share that Presley Simelus (they/them) was dubbed by the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues' Debater of the Year Finalist!
Presley states that this win is, "...incredibly surreal yet humbling. Being a finalist for debater of the year is an honor that I share with my friends, family, debate coaches, my league (Boston Debate League), and of course my debate partners. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, because this couldn’t have been done without you!"
A big congratulations to Presley, we can't wait to see what you do next!
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Congratulations to Amy Zhou, our very own valedictorian!
Each year Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) graduates over 500 young people into the real world. This year Amy Zhou (she/her) was named the 2024 CRLS Valedictorian, featured as one of CRLS' 2024 Super Seniors, and had the opportunity to share what made her high school experience so special.
With possible future career(s) such as an educator, writer, and/or lawyer, Amy hopes to continue her academic journey at Harvard University and will pursue her interests in government, history, and education. When asked about her favorite subject Amy commented, "...history stands out for many reasons. Historical education is absolutely necessary for developing critical thinking, understanding our present lives, and creating a better future. I’ve always been interested in history, whether it be personal family history or well-known global events, but CRLS history took everything to another level. Every single history class I took—Modern Global Conflicts, AP African American Studies, to name a few—was deeply engaging, and I always felt like my worldview was growing every day."
A big congratulations to Amy, we can't wait to see what you do next!
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Congratulations to
Henry Lopez, our 2024
Leah Deni Awardee!
The Leah Deni Award is given to a youth leader who embodies the values of the LEAH Project: leadership, curiosity, support, teamwork, and growth. When Youth Leaders were asked to nominate a peer to be a recipient of this award, they were also asked to share a few words about why they nominated this person.
Here is what they had to say about Henry Lopez (he/him), one Youth Leader stated that he “embodies the LEAH values since [they] attend [their] site for [their] school year STEM teaching internship and embraces a positive attitude on teaching the children in order to give them hope about the potential to pursue STEM.”
Another said, "[he] always lights up the mood during [workshops] and is incredibly participative." Finally, it was expressed that this year’s recipient “is deserving of the Leah Deni Award since [they have] been able to hold down [his] duties alongside being friendly to new LEAH youth and folks…this is who I can count to represent LEAH!”
A big congratulations to Henry, we can't wait to see what you do next!
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What Has LEAH Been Up To?!
Click on the Highlighted Words to Learn More!
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LEAH's End of Year Celebration
This May LEAH celebrated and graduated our 19th cohort of youth leaders! While each youth leader has their own journey with LEAH’s internships, this year we wanted to highlight their perseverance, courage, and curiosity!
In the company of friends, family, LEAH alumni, community, and staff members, we got an insight into the accomplishments and experiences of a few of our youth leaders. While we shared music, jokes, and joy, we reflected on the importance of support and unexpected community.
Here’s to this year’s wonderful cohort, congratulations!
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Summer Lab Skills Refresher
I was excited to be back in the lab for the lab refresher! I didn't get the chance to go to any College Readiness workshops during the school year so it felt like a mini reunion to me. It brought back memories of when I was at my bench with Vanessa helping me; it was very relaxing. I'm not much of a competitive person myself, but when we were all making dilutions for a pipetting accuracy test, I was laser-focused (even when I was far from winning). Once again, none of it felt like busy work, which was a refreshing break after ending school.
For my second-year placement, I'll be participating in the Broad Summer Scholars Program which is just down the street from my last summer internship at LEAH! I'm super excited and nervous but I'll be taking it one step further from LEAH Knox and I'll be doing my own research within the PRISM lab. I can’t wait to reunite with the other second-years during our symposium at the end of the summer!
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End of STEM Teaching
by Wesley Carty
The STEM Teaching internship spanned most of this past school year and was quite the ride. During the six jam packed months of the internship, the LEAH staff got to watch this year's cohort grow, hone their skills as classroom facilitators and give back to their communities. Some personal highlights I have from the year are all the icebreakers we ran before programming (even the confusing ones), hosting high energy jeopardy games, and visiting our host sites to see some of the hard work and care our youth leaders put into their quirkles lessons. Also, the Workshop and Fun committee of the YLT put together two fun and informative workshops on debate skills and work etiquette (s/o to Phat, Luira, and Yohannes). We accomplished a lot this year, so I'd like to congratulate all the youth leaders who participated in the internship, and I hope that we can keep up this momentum next year.
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Joining STEM Teaching through the eyes of Abdullahi Hassan
My time at LEAH was very memorable, hanging with friends laughing and joking. The trips that we took to places this year, such as the red sox games. It was very fun at the game/s, even though I got lost a couple times trying to get there, but in general it was good. Going back to programming, the times where we had ice breakers were engaging.
I also remember the time when I burned noodles in the microwave without water (lowkey was evil). And that one time where me and Yohannes were experimenting with different tea flavors on hot chocolate just out of curiosity. The performance I did at LEAH, really impressed me because I know this really is going to help in the future as I continue my career as a musician but also contributing in school. In general, LEAH this year was very fun and shout out to everyone who is part of it. You guys made my year better 🖤
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The YLT Workshop Committee through the Eyes of Luira Leite
As an immigrant, finding opportunities to take on leadership roles and voice your opinions is often difficult. However, in the Youth Leadership Team (YLT) at LEAH, I found a comfortable space to share my ideas for improving LEAH and coordinate the Work Etiquette and Resume Workshop. Initially, I was hesitant when the team asked me to lead the workshop because I lacked experience in planning and had stage anxiety.
However, the LEAH staff provided us with templates to efficiently plan the workshop and offered practice sessions with feedback, which helped me gain confidence. We focused on identifying the most challenging aspects of resumes and work environments for Youth Leaders. We figured out how to explain these concepts in a way that would make them less intimidating. During the presentation, I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable I felt, knowing that I had the support of my partner, Yohannes, and the Youth Leader staff who helped facilitate discussions with the audience and keep the workshop on schedule.
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Our Spring Retreat through the eyes of
If I’m honest, I dislike going on overnight trips with people I know and people I don’t know, but I decided to go on the Leah Spring Retreat. I can 100% say that it was the best decision I made. I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed with softball (being a manager), APs, my upcoming internship, and more, but the retreat managed to ease my mind and allowed me to have fun. I was able to build relationships with people I never thought I would be friends with, developed a better teamwork ethic, and in general did so many things I never thought I’d enjoy doing with many people within a short time!
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The State Street Visit
through the eyes of
Jieying "Jane" Li
The workshop was informative and resourceful. I had heard and learned so many new things about budgeting, investment, retirement, and some information about stocks. I have never heard of so much information at once, it was a blasting experience. Especially about the 401K retirement plan, I will definitely look forward to it. I really enjoyed having time with the representatives, too. They were very humorous and enjoyable. I am interested in learning more about finance and I am excited to learn more in college. Also, after this workshop, I decided to make my own budgeting spreadsheet (to keep track of cash flow). I can’t believe that my cash flow was pretty crazy each month. Thank you much for this experience, I definitely appreciate it!
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LEAH's Emmanuel Visit through the eyes of Gurkiran Kaur
Experiencing Emmanuel College was truly eye-opening when I was able to see all the aspects of the campus. It allowed me to consider attending Emmanuel in the fall as we even got a first-hand look at the true aspects of campus life, with students hosting an Earth Day event in the middle of the yard on campus. All during the tour!
Many, like myself, would also conclude that Emmanuel is truly becoming high-tech, with their new nursing simulation labs and technology offered to students, which was so cool to see. This cutting-edge side of science, combined with the humble Catholic college architecture and atmosphere, allowed me to see how different Emmanuel College is from neighboring schools in the area. I wished they shared a more in-depth look at what classes are like, but overall had a fun and informative time during this visit!
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Our Annual Muddy River Cleanup through the eyes of Nateh Panyere
The Muddy River Cleanup was a very rewarding opportunity to bond with the LEAH staff and members! Aside from the fact that participants get to earn helpful community service hours which helped for my school credits, it was a nice change of pace to see how fellow LEAH members interact outside of the office, and being out in the Boston nature is just as refreshing.
I enjoyed watching the geese outside with everyone (Bertha and I were plotting to steal one and make it the LEAH mascot) and taking pictures under the pretty trees at Fenway where the height of spring is usually displayed. The volunteer staff were also very sweet! Splitting tasks among each other for picking up trash and holding the trash bags was great, it brought a sense of community and collaboration among us. And at the end, where we all went out to eat, it was nice having lunch with everyone and I tried something new that I never knew existed: sushi tacos! I would strongly love to have an opportunity like that again, not just to feel closer to the LEAH members, but also to Boston’s environment, and to get a free meal at the end :)
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here are some STEM jokes for the road!
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