Leadership within Peers - Peer Resource Students turned Coordinators!!
We would like to welcome both Brenda Cervantes and Nea Santana as our new after school program coordinators for Marina MS and Sunset Beacon, respectively. We are especially excited to have Brenda and Nea join the Peers community, since they were both Peer Resource students as well as Peer Resource office interns, where they displayed their leadership skills and learned about the program at an administrative level. Brenda and Nea join the ranks of Loreta Mana at Visitacion Valley Beacon and Gerber Marquez at Community Bridges Beacon as Peer Resource students that have become fabulous Peer Resource coordinators.
Brenda Cervantes has been at Peers since she was 12 years old, first at Benjamin Franklin Middle School and then at Mission High School. Brenda tells us that one of the first things she learned at Peer Resources was teamwork activities, and how to respect people's differences. Those same skills are now helping her run the program at Marina Middle School. According to Brenda, first impressions can label students for academic years to come. "(Teachers) think – he is being disruptive, he doesn't want to learn" and students don't get a second chance. "Maybe they are more hands-on, or they may need to be an example, or act the lesson out. Some people learn visually, some learn by doing stuff with their hands. Everyone learns differently."
Nea Santanahas been involved with Peer Resources for 5 years. She is also taking the skills she learned and is using them in a positive way. "I remember how important it was to me to be doing the YAR Conference when I was at Galileo. I feel it is necessary to pass on the things that I've learned that helped me in my daily life....issues like sexual harassment, race, and peer pressure. Now I'm able to work with young people to develop their own presentations for the MS conference, and teach others about issues that are important to them."