Our newest wave of Peer Leaders brought the heat to NOVA Southeastern University in Florida this July for their 2019 Summer Workshop, and their energy and passion to create change in their communities was on fire! A total of 117 rising high school seniors from 28 different high schools earned their official Peer Leader status after four powerful days of training, campaign planning, and personal growth through each workshop session.
With PeerForward teams gathered from Maryland, DC, California, Texas, and Florida, this workshop captured an incredibly diverse group of student voices from wide stretches across the country, including one of our newest geographical areas to welcome PeerForward: the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Leticia Moreno, a Peer Leader from Palmview High School on the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, Texas shared excitement about her new team, saying, “We will be the first people from PeerForward at my school, and I hope to motivate incoming seniors next year to join the program and experience this amazing opportunity.”
Excitement didn’t stop there as this workshop brought together new and familiar faces, like that of PeerForward Co-Founder, Derek Canty, and his daughter, Cameron Canty, who earned her Peer Leader status at this workshop. Peer Leader Nicholas Slunaker, son of PeerForward alumnus, Emmanuel Fortune, also joined at the workshop and shared the experience of carrying on the Peer Leader title his father also held, saying, “The workshop was really informative; I learned a lot. I’m happy to have had the experience he passed down to me.”
PeerForward is so grateful to the 15 College Coaches and 17 Writing Coaches that poured in countless hours of instruction, research, time, and care into helping our Peer Leaders leave the workshop with a concrete list of colleges to apply to and their personal statement for future applications. And we deeply thank the 29 PeerForward Advisors who attended for their commitment to our program and pivotal role in our program’s success throughout the school year.
We look forward to the great work ahead from each of our PeerForward teams!
