Hazelwood East GEAR UP Students Attend Youth Summit
and Tobacco Use Prevention Conference in Jefferson City

On Februrary 10th and 11th, Hazelwood East GEAR UP students and teachers joined 500 students from other Missouri schools for a two-day Youth Summit a few blocks from the Capitol in Jefferson City. This youth-focused conference featured motivational speakers, advanced training in tobacco control leadership and interactive educational sessions.

The University of Missouri planned the conference through funding from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Additional support was provided by national and state-wide voluntary agencies.

The Hazelwood East students and teachers are members of Youth Empowerment in Action (YEA). YEA is a media literacy-based program hosted by the Center for Character and Citizenship in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. YEA’s mission is to encourage and empower youth to make their own choices and decisions through media literacy education and hands-on production experience.

Audrey Lee, Sue Baervelt, Sabrina Sylvester and Justin Wilhite received YEA training in late November 2008 and serve as the mentors to more than twenty East students who are developing an anti-tobacco program for use with Hazelwood elementary and middle school students. Members of this team who attended the conference, were GEAR UP students (10 th-graders), Denzell Roberson, Sharnea Parker, Jeremiah Burton, Bryon Humphrey, Shakita Hardeway, and 12th graders, Eric McClendon and Tasha Scruggs

State Representative, Rochelle Walton Gray joined the Hazelwood East students and staff during the Leadership Breakfast on Wednesday morning. After breakfast, students spoke with Representative Gray and took time for photos. Students were scheduled to visit the Capitol, but were unable to, due inclement weather.

The Hazelwood team enthusiastically, participated in several break-out sessions, such as: How to be Heard: Dealing with Adults-How to be Seen; Advocacy Training 101; Training for Success and The Tobacco Industry 2009. Tasha Scruggs, Hazelwood East senior said, “If we can convince younger kids not to start smoking, maybe we could have a generation of non-smokers.” When asked what they learned, Sharnea Parker remarked, “I didn’t know 3 rd-hand smoke was such a bad problem.”