Urban Ecology Institute’s LEAH Mentors Program 2006-2007 Update

When asked what kind of impact she wants to have on the young children she and her fellow mentors work with, Boston teenager Elizabeth Faroul spoke of the program and the woman for who it is named 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 the spring of 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. Named after Leah K. Deni, the founder of UEI’s after-school and out-of-school youth development and environmental education programs, who died at the age of 25 in December, 2004, LEAH has become a testament to the transforming energy of her life. That energy has now rippled through the lives of more than 30 young men and women who have been Mentors and environmental educators for more than 400 younger students.

In just 25 years, Leah Deni brought passion, wit, and intelligence to everything she undertook to learn or create or teach. A 2001 graduate of Swarthmore College, Leah had worked for environmental justice and education as early as her high school years, when she created a bird study program for teens in the Bronx. In her time at UEI, she launched many of the organization’s after-school and summer programming for youth of all ages. She was a poet, a musician, an artist, and an Ultimate Frisbee player of uncommon joy. Her laughter and her lessons continue to resonate in all of those who knew her.

In just two years, LEAH, under the guidance of Olyssa Starry and Lindsey Cotter and in close partnership with the Boston Public Schools, 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.

In just two years, LEAH has provided Mentors with training in teaching urban environmental science to children, in Behavioral management and in lesson planning, enabling some of them to consider pursuing careers in education, environmental education, and youth development. Mentors have learned the basics of personal financial planning and money management. They’ve been coached in career skills such as resume writing, being interviewed for jobs, and professional conduct in a variety of potential work environments. They’ve had different styles, modes, and spheres of leadership modeled for them by UEI staff and guest speakers, and have worked on their own leadership skills through goal-setting exercises and public speaking opportunities at which they present on various aspects of their experiences being Mentors. They’ve learned about environmental justice issues and have been empowered to consider the roles they can play as leaders in their communities’ ongoing efforts to confront these challenges.

In just two years, the younger students being taught by the LEAH Mentors have been lead in experiential, hands-on urban bird studies, been given an overview of urban ecosystem studies, have performed water quality testing along area rivers and streams, and have learned about global warming and ways to combat it.

They’ve undertaken urban tree studies, have learned about plants close up through gardening projects, and have build terrariums for their classrooms and community centers. They’ve read science newsletters written by high school students in UEI’s Greentimes program, and have performed the indoor and outdoor science activities contained therein. 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, and 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 it—and thus honor her—through their contributions to the work that’s becoming part of her legacy.

To learn more about the LEAH Program email leah@urbaneco.org