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04.25.03
Teens show they can Be the difference
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of their peers hold part-time jobs at drug stores, movie theaters and
restaurants, but Taphath Giles, Chantelle Ransome
and Ana Louise Leary have a different kind
of after-school job. As peer leaders working in the Center
for Young Women’s Health, their duties range from leading health
education sessions to helping residents learn how to talk with teenagers.
The Center recently recognized the hard work and dedication of these Boston
Latin High School juniors when staff members nominated the girls for the
Mayor’s “Be the Difference” Positive Image Award. The
honor went to Taphath and five other teens from across the city, and was
presented by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino at the Mayor’s Youth Summit
on April 19. Although Taphath won the award, she says she considers it
a shared honor. “I feel like I’m accepting it on behalf of
all of us,” she says. “I wouldn’t be able to do this
work without Chantelle and Ana. We do it as a team.”
The Center for Young Women’s Health provides clinical services and
resources, and promotes research and healthcare provider education dedicated
to improving the health and well being of adolescent girls. The peer leaders’
responsibilities at the Center include giving health-related presentations
to kids as young as 8 and as old as 18, helping train residents in Adolescent
Medicine and creating health resources for teens.
One of the girls’ favorite jobs is giving health presentations at
YMCAs, schools, and other groups, which they do at least once every other
week. Their presentations hit topics such as nutrition and fitness, healthy
relationships and how to access health information. The presentations
always include ice breakers, games and role playing. “We never just
sit there and talk,” says Taphath. “We have to make it interesting.”
That can be difficult—especially with an audience of squirming 8-year-olds.
But Chantelle, 16, says the younger kids are her favorite audience. “It’s
kind of amazing how much they remember,” she says. At their last
presentation, she says, “at the end they all gave us hugs.”
Older audiences present a different challenge because the girls have to
get their peers to take them seriously. Although it can be intimidating,
according to Ana, 17, they’ve been successful. She points to a smoking
cessation presentation they gave to a group of teens who were visiting
Children’s. “It went really well, and I think we connected
with them,” she says. “They saw that we had something to share
with them, and we weren’t lecturing them.”
Their peers are not the only ones with something to learn from the teenagers.
Another aspect of their work at Children’s is helping to train residents
in Adolescent Medicine. “The doctors have to learn how to talk to
teenagers,” explains Chantelle. “We make up characters with
different problems, like depression and eating disorders.” After
the role-playing, the girls give the doctors feedback.
The girls also participated in a panel at the annual Pediatric Adolescent
Medical Conference, helping doctors understand how to relate to adolescents,
and Ana and Taphath attended a national conference on young women’s
health in Washington, DC.
The list of their accomplishments goes on: the girls have been on TV to
make recipes from the Center’s cookbook, were photographed performing
exercises for an online, youth-oriented fitness guide and produce a quarterly
newsletter called Teen Talk. They also sit on Children’s Youth Advisory
Board, established to brainstorm ideas for making the hospital more teen-friendly.
“It sounds like a lot of work, but I don’t look at it that
way,” says Taphath. “We’re always doing something different.”—CM