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MENTORS FOR JENNA
"This program is fantastic. It is great to see inner city kids
working with younger students and truly making a difference."
- Participating SCSD Faculty Member
Mentors for Jenna coordinator Krista Marshall, center, with
mentors from Corcoran High School, Syracuse, New York.
HISTORY
The Mentors for Jenna program was established in 1999. The program is designed to operate as a youth-to-youth role-modeling system, and was established using the same values with which Janice and Bruce Grieshaber raised their own two daughters, Erica and Jenna. Initially, the program was successfully piloted in both the Baldwinsville and Jamesville-Dewitt school systems.
Since that time, the Mentors for Jenna program has become embedded into the fifth-grade classrooms of fifteen Syracuse City School District buildings (We have just expanded the program, yet again, for the ‘07-‘08 academic season!).
Each of the lessons was designed to teach fifth-grade students the meaning of individual responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions / choice of words. The students we work with are provided with tools and concepts for problem solving through non-violent means. We now work with nearly 1000 students across our inner-city community.
The programmatic goals include teaching youth (both the Mentors and Mentees) that we are all accountable for our actions, the importance of individual responsibility and that we ALL play a role in making our community a safer, less violent place in which to live.
Our volunteer youth Mentors (grades 9-12) come from the five Syracuse City School District high schools: Corcoran, George Fowler, Henninger, IT at Syracuse Central and Nottingham. Each of these students receives training by the Jenna Foundation for Non-Violence and then implements the ten-lesson curriculum in fifth-grade classes during the academic year. Faculty members from the District's high schools volunteer to serve as the Coordinator for one group of students.
We are excited to share that the first part of our annual Mentors for Jenna Training Event was held at Alliance Bank Stadium in September. The Mentors participated in interesting, enlightening (and fun!) activities. The training session is always carefully designed to include the philosophy behind the Mentors for Jenna program, the proper implementation of the curriculum and, most importantly, insight as to who Jenna truly was and the remarkable values she steadfastly upheld during her life.
We are pleased to announce that Mr. Donald McPherson will, once again, serve as our guest speaker and co-trainer at the second part of the annual training, to be held in early December 2007. Donald annually shares with our Mentors his invaluable insights about leadership, character and respect – all of which the students will benefit from personally and as they implement the lessons of our curriculum in fifth-grade classrooms. Donald and the Grieshaber family share a remarkably similar vision as to how to promote positive societal change, and they agree that such change must begin with the recognition of individual responsibility.
Krista Marshall re-joined the Foundation staff in April 2006 and assisted with the revision of the curriculum. She will serve as the Mentors for Jenna Program Director and has shared that she feels “honored to have been asked to assist” as Janice Grieshaber shares Jenna’s high moral values and principles with youth across the city of Syracuse.
Our vision for the program’s future includes continued expansion across the city school district – so that increasing numbers of youth in our community can continue to benefit from the curriculum’s carefully-designed, and ever so valuable messages of non-violence.
We gratefully acknowledge the (nearly 200!) high-school student Mentors who will share our program’s curriculum with fifth-graders across the city school district this academic year. It is only with their help, with the support of the volunteer faculty Coordinators, and with the continued cooperation of the Syracuse City School District’s administration and faculty, that we can reach so many youth in our effort to share Jenna’s admirable spirit of non-violence. YOUR help counts, too, through the generous donations that are made to the Jenna Foundation for Non-Violence – in support of the Mentors for Jenna program. Thank you to the Syracuse community members who are supportive of our work with local youth!!
Krista Marshall, leading the training section regarding the program's
curriculum and sharing stories about Jenna Grieshaber with the students
who trained at Alliance Bank Stadium on September 26, 2007.
Janice Grieshaber, Executive Director (pictured on far right), was joined at the
Alliance Bank Stadium by Krista Marshall, Mentors for Jenna Program Director.
Also pictured with Janice and Krista are Marc Peters (intern from Syracuse University)
and Stephanie Laterra (intern from LeMoyne College). Together, we trained nearly
100 high school students from the Syracuse City School District on September 26, 2007.
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Did You Know ...
… that Jenna Grieshaber studied ballet and that her love of dance
extended to ALL forms of dance?
In the photos below, you'll find Jenna's ballet shoes and
a photo capturing her feeling the music at a 1992 prom
(while wearing her mother's senior prom dress from 1967)!
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Please Take Notice:
Sports Machismo May Be Cue to Male Teen Violence
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
University Park, Pa. – The sports culture surrounding football and wrestling may be fueling aggressive and violent behavior not only among teen male players but also among their male friends and peers on and off the field, according to a Penn State study.
For more information on this interesting study, please click the link below:
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If you have questions regarding this, or any of our programs, please call us here at
The Jenna Foundation for Non-Violence
315-422-0339
or email us at info@jennafoundation.org
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