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Youth
Leadership Awards in Tobacco Control and Prevention
Mass
Youth Against Tobacco is proud to honor the
2008
Regional and Statewide Youth Leadership Award Recipients!
For
the first time ever, Mass Youth Against Tobacco honored youth
leaders from across the state in the third annual Youth Leadership
Awards. One youth leader was selected from each region
of the state for their exemplary leadership in their community,
and one youth leader was selected for the statewide award for
leadership in their community, region and state! Congratulations,
everyone! Read more about them below.
Anthony
White of Roslindale, Lauren Soares of Stoughton, Leslie Estevez
of Florence, Brittany Chen of The Medical Foundation and Patricia
Henley of Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (top,
left to right)
Stephanie
Pierre of Malden, Smriti Choudhury of Ashland, Linette Carvalho
of Roxbury and Fidgi Simeon of Worcester (bottom, left to
right)
Congratulations
to our Statewide Youth Leadership Award Winner, Linette!
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Linette Carvalho
Age: 17
School: Wakefield Memorial HIgh
School
Community Group: The Greater Boston
Regional
84 Crew and Massachusetts Alliance of
Portuguese Speakers
Where she lives: Roxbury
What she has to say: "I have been
working hard for
the past two years to address tobacco issues by
using my age to an advantage [to talk to my peers]
and my ability to give my opinion openly, but
respectfully ... I do not want to have to go back to
school for a reunion and find out the people I care
about have cancer or may have passed away
because of tobacco related illnesses ... I am also
tired of seeing smoking around children because ...
second hand smoke can have negative affects on
people even if they have never smoked a day in
their lives. This work is important to me, because
I
can actually make a difference."
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Congratulations
to our Regional Youth Leadership Award Winners!
Anthony
White
Greater
Boston Regional Youth Leader
Age:
16
School:
Boston Latin Academy
Community
Group: Rossie Reps, The Greater
Boston Regional 84 Crew
Where
he lives: Roslindale
What
he has to say: "I believe
that it is of extreme importance that people are educated
about the dangers of tobacco and other drug abuse.
From my continuous experience with the Rossie Reps and
The 84 Crew, I have learned that the best way to accomplish
this goal is by expanding the knowledge of people within
communities... This, I believe, can be achieved through
community outreach activities, public speaking, event
planning and much more."
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Fidgi
Simeon
Central
MA Regional Youth Leader
Age:
17
School:
St. Peter Marian High School
Community
Group: Central MA Regional 84
Crew
Where
she lives: Worcester
What
she has to say: "This work
is important to me because tobacco affects us all, not
only those who smoke or chew tobacco. It affects
different aspects of the community. Environmentally,
smoking contributes to polluting the air. It may
affect others who second-hand smoke, since they are
at double the risk of those who actually smoke.
It produces injustice among social and economic classes
of our society. We as youth have the opportunity
to speak up and our use our rights to make positive
and effective change for our generation and our community."
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Lauren
Soares
Southeast
Regional Youth Leader
Age:
17
School:
Stoughton High School
Community
Group: Stoughton SADD and OASIS
Where
she lives: Stoughton
What
she has to say: "With all
the harm that can come from the usage of tobacco, I
think that it is really important to spread the knowledge
of this to others. If even one person can be persuaded
to not smoke a cigarette because they realize the majority
is NOT smoking from our social norms campaign, then
maybe I have made a difference. This makes me
value what we do so much."
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Leslie
Estevez
Western
MA Regional Youth Leader
Age:
14
School:
Northampton High School
Community
Group: LAUNCH/ Community Action
Where
she lives: Florence
What
she has to say: "I've been
encouraging my mother to stop smoking cigarettes.
A lot of people see that I'm trying to get her to stop
so now they are trying to stop smoking too. I think
that the totbacco issues in my community need a lot of
work. All my mom's friends are trying to stop ...
I want everyone in the community to be healthy so I encourage
them to be healthy."
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Smriti
Choudbury and Iva Popa
Metrowest
Regional Youth Leaders
Age:
Smriti - 17; Iva - 16
School:
Ashland High School & Somerville
High School
Community
Group: Metrowest STEP/ The 84 Crew
Wheres
he lives: Roslindale
What
Smriti has to say: This work is
important to me because I want my generation and the following
generations to be comprised of healthy individuals who
do not make the mistake of destroying their lives, the
lives of others, and the overall socio-economic balance
in the United States. I stand for anti-tobacco because
I do not want the lower classes of the economic scale
to be the target audience for tobacco companies who seek
to gain profits by creating tobacco addicts within the
poor people of America's society. In the end, this
work regarding tobacco is important to me because I want
the nation that I live in to be a healthy community.
What
Iva has to say: My personal connection
with this issue is very personal. I want to work
in the issue of preventing tobacco because people in my
family have smoked and been smokers for a long time.
My grandfather passed away this February because tobacco
had weakened her heart. Also, I have a little sister
and I don't want her to have to live in a community with
so much smoke and unhealthiness.
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Stephanie
Pierre
Northeast
MA Regional Youth Leader
Age:
18
School:
Malden High School
Community
Group: Northeast Regional 84
Crew/ Malden YWCA TASK
Where
she lives: Malden
What
she has to say: "I have
been working on the issues of tobacco within my community
for approximately three and a half years...I see slow
changes in our community but a change is a change and
the work we do is all worth it. I am passionate
about the work I do because I have seen people who I
love die over such a preventable death. It saddens
me to see young people my age starting a habit they
will probably regret in the future.."
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