Jazmin's Story

Our Teen Mentors gain valuable life skills including increased awareness of higher education opportunities, ability to coach and mentor, confidence in communication and presentation skills.

Meet Jazmin: She just graduated as a Teen Mentor and is headed off to college.

I just graduated from Boston Collegiate Charter School and will be attending Boston College in the fall.  I always knew I wanted to go to college.  My mother always encouraged me to get a college degree and be successful. For most of my childhood I wanted to be a biochemist but as I tried different sciences in High School I discovered my love for psychology, which was solidified during an internship at the Department of Children and Families.  

The college interns I worked with at LEAP really helped me prepare for college.  They answered my questions and made me feel better about the difficult process applying to college is.  They described the ups and downs of their college so I would know what to expect. I already knew I was going to college but the teaching women and interns made me more comfortable with the idea of going to and graduating from college and made me feel differently about the women I will meet there and the relationships I will develop.

I think a lot about what career I might want to take on.  I’ve considered becoming a clinical psychologist, but I’m leaning towards a job that involves more behavioral science. I even considered neuroscience at one point.  I do not know exactly what path to take. But from talking with the college women at LEAP, I know that that is okay, and by senior year I am sure I will have figured out what I want to do.  I also plan on taking many electives such as theater and participating is as many activities as possible.

I have always been very close to my mother and next year will be a huge change and challenge.  I will be living in a college dorm while my mother moves to another state in October.  I am nervous about having a roommate.  Knowing I cannot go home on the holidays or weekends unless I get on a flight concerns me.  Thinking about being on my own makes me very anxious about taking on new responsibilities without my mother’s direct support. I know she will still be there for me, just not physically there, and I was not expecting to have to face that going into college. To me I am still a kid, but in June I will be seen as an adult, which is how I will have to act.

LEAP has definitely made me more of a feminist. I have embodied being a woman and appreciated other women in my life. I see everyday media, movies, TV shows and songs in a much different light. I have also thought of myself differently. I am known to have very low self-esteem, and LEAP has helped me reconnect with my own confidence. People would always laugh when I told them I helped teach a self-defense program, but I know how much of a positive impact it has had on me and other girls’ lives. I now know where my strength lies as a woman and try every day to receive and also give myself the respect I deserve by making the right decisions.

LEAP has given me a level of maturity I did not have before. Before LEAP I did not get along very well with girls and as a teen mentor I worked with no one but girls. That helped me form friendships with my coworkers and with other women in the future. I will bring this skill and all the others I have learned with LEAP with me to college life and I know they will be very beneficial to me. 

You can donate to Girls' LEAP so more girls like Jazmin can find the confidence they need to succeed