Jennyde's Story

Teen Mentors participate in workshops to further develop personal and professional life skills such as public speaking, leadership and self confidence.

Meet Jennyde: A former Teen Mentor, she now goes to college full time and works full time.

I grew up in Dorchester.  I was attending one of Boston’s science & math focused schools but my guidance counselor wasn’t encouraging me in a direction I wanted to go into and I was beginning to think that college wasn’t for me and maybe a trade school might be my best option.

I joined Girls’ LEAP as a Teen Mentor the summer after my sophomore year and continued in the program through my junior year and the summer after that.  At LEAP we do Mandalas which make us think about who we are, our values, our challenges and our hopes & dreams.  By participating in my journey of self-awareness I realized that my High School was blocking me from my goals so I made a brave decision to leave all my friends and find a new school for my senior year that would support me in finding a different future.

Being a Teen Mentor gave me a concrete understanding of myself and what I wanted to do.  It’s not about dressing to impress, it is about your journey. Helping girls who have been through violent situations gave me confidence inside and out – a tool in my back pocket so I’m never afraid.

At LEAP I learned to express myself, became confident in how I express myself and learned that I can impact others.  I had never written poetry before or even thought about it.  When I performed at a LEAP Awareness Poetry Event I felt supported and heard and discovered that poetry was my true passion.  I found my voice at Girls’ LEAP.

After LEAP I continued writing poetry and I participate regularly in local Poetry Slams.  I received a Spoken Word scholarship to attend college.  At college I am meeting lots of new people and really appreciate my professors who continue to help me understand myself.

I am interested in helping people and having a strong positive impact in their lives and started in a Nursing program.  I also took an 8 week training course in how to be a medical interpreter which uses my language skills and gives me a different insight in communications between patients and the medical professions.

At 19 I am living on my own, studying to be a Nurse with a full load of college classes in the morning and supporting myself by working full time at Dana Farber Hospital as a medical interpreter at night.

If I hadn’t joined Girls’ LEAP I probably would have just gone to trade school and not really followed my dreams.  LEAP gave me the confidence to believe in myself and to take the steps I needed to take to make a different future possible.  It was a huge part of my journey.

You can donate to Girls' LEAP so more girls like Jennyde can find their voice.