Every year, Hawthorne High School’s Peer Leaders group attends the Passaic County United for Prevention Teen Summit in the fall. Peer Leaders has been frequenting the Summit for approximately seven years, but this 2016 Summit was the first time that they were assigned a project.

In October, the Teen Summit assigned the PhotoVoice project, which required each Peer Leaders group in attendance to take a picture of something that exemplifies an error in their community and write a narrative about it. There would be another Summit meeting in May of 2017 where they would choose and announce the winner of the PhotoVoice project.

HHS’s Peer Leaders group split into five smaller groups and each created their own PhotoVoice project. After all five photos were taken and narratives were written, the entirety of the Peer Leaders voted on which project would be sent into the Teen Summit. A picture of a beer bottle in a tree (taken by Abby Reicher) with a wonderful narrative was the one the Peer Leaders voted on submitting. Gabby Burkart, Emma Matthews, Dana Scherer, Meagan Scherer, and Rose Walsh were also in the winning group with Reicher.

On May 12, 2017, the Peer Leaders were ecstatic to find out they were the winners of the PhotoVoice project. Ms. Kelly Clifford and Mr. Matthew Corvo, the head teachers of Peer Leaders, were especially excited to win. Clifford said to the Clarion that she is “truly proud, it took all year. It was really awesome to win because we went up against other schools and they had amazing presentations.”

They were awarded a $1000 grant so that they may spread the message of their Photovoice presentation. Clifford says they are unsure as to where the placement of the fund will go as of now. They will also attend an awards ceremony at William Paterson University on June 7.

Congratulations to the Hawthorne High School Peer Leaders on winning the Passaic County United for Prevention Teen Summit’s PhotoVoice project! We are excited to see what our amazing students will accomplish next!