LEAH Mentors

UEI is committed to producing the future leaders of the urban ecology movement. To this end, UEI has started the Leaders in Education, Action and Hope program (LEAH) - a paid opportunity for young people attending Boston Public Schools to teach Field Studies in after school programs throughout Boston. The program provides high school students with intensive training and then jobs working at Boston Community Learning Centers (BCLCs), as mentors and peer science educators. The mentors are not only trained in the UEI science curricula, but also receive instruction on soft job skills and green jobs opportunities.

The program was started in honor of Leah Deni, a former Out-of-School-time program director at UEI who was passionately devoted to youth development. Leah passed away at the age of 25 in 2004, but the transformative energy of her life continues to inspire our work. Boston teenager and LEAH Mentor Elizabeth Faroul put it this way: "Leah Deni's spirit is like a pond into which we've been thrown like stones - the ripples we make reach the younger kids and inspire them like her life inspires us."

Since its inception in 2005, the LEAH (Leaders in Education, Action, and Hope) Mentors Program at the Urban Ecology Institute has been dedicated to the principle that the lives of all young people have great potential for transforming the world around them. Under the guidance of Olyssa Starry and Lindsey Cotter and in close partnership with the Boston Public Schools, LEAH has managed to place mentors at dozens of Boston Community Learning Centers, after-school, out-of-school, and summer programs, reaching more than 200 students a year. LEAH has been a vital component of UEI's broad-scale partnerships with the BPS, and has been instrumental in UEI's becoming the official after-school science provider to BPS after-school programs.

LEAH provides Mentors with training in teaching urban environmental science to children, behavioral management, and lesson planning, inspiring some of them to pursue careers in education, environmental education, and youth development. Mentors also learn the basics of personal financial planning and money management. They receive coaching in career skills such as resume writing, interviewing for jobs, and professional conduct in a variety of potential work environments. Different styles, modes, and spheres of leadership are modeled for them by UEI staff and guest speakers, and they work on their own leadership skills through goal-setting exercises and public speaking through presentations on various aspects of their experiences being Mentors. They also learn about environmental justice issues and are empowered to consider the roles that they can play as leaders in their communities' ongoing efforts to confront these challenges.

Younger students being taught by the LEAH Mentors are lead in experiential, hands-on urban bird studies, given overviews of urban ecosystem studies, perform water quality testing along area rivers and streams, and learn about combating global warming.

Through their experience, we've seen our Mentors make strides toward becoming tomorrow's community leaders. They've undertaken urban tree studies, learned about plants close up through gardening projects, and built terrariums for their classrooms and community centers. Most of all, they've seen young women and men not much older than themselves serve as teachers, community leaders, and environmentalists, and have seen them be good students, energetic community activists, and hopeful stewards of the future.

In just two years, the LEAH Fund at UEI has raised more than $35,000 from hundreds of dedicated donors. Those donors and dollars are stones and ripples, as well, reaching many young people throughout the Boston area. Just as students and staff who never knew Leah Deni personally have come to feel connected to her through the rippling energy of the LEAH Mentors program, donors who never knew her have been inspired by the work of the program to honor the remarkable young woman who inspired it by contributing to her growing legacy.

Learn More About Leah Deni

Attend the 2009 LEAH Mentors Kick-Off