WEST
WINDSOR, N.J. --Mercer
County Community College (MCCC) students who participate in the
Bonner Leader program are helping local teens served by HomeFront,
tutoring and mentoring them in a program called "Triumphant
Teens." The purpose of the program is to give at-risk teens
a vision of a life that includes college and mainstream employment.
Four
MCCC Bonner Leaders have been meeting with the teens on Wednesday
evenings in December to review and discuss homework assignments
and to focus on academic areas. The Bonner Leaders are part of a
group of 15 MCCC students who spend from 300 to 900 hours over the
academic year serving charitable organizations to improve education
and help eradicate poverty in Mercer County.
According
to HomeFront instructor Esther Osborne, “Triumphant Teens”
exits to provide Mercer County teens a safe environment in which
to grow in their educational, vocational, and relational goals by
enabling them to realize their dreams, and keeping them from falling
to the lure of the streets.
Donna
Munde, a professor of Communications at Mercer and director of the
college’s Bonner Leader program, “Mercer is pleased
to assist HomeFront in this effort, and we hope to continue the
collaboration in the spring 2010 semester.”
Bonner
leader Zadewine Kemah, a Communications major, said she enjoys doing
community service and working with teens. In addition to HomeFront,
Kemah has worked with the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, a crisis ministry
group, a garden group, and MCCC’s DREAM program, where she
mentors students with cognitive disabilities.
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