Teen Leadership and PALS share the same interest in acts of service, helping students work together to build bonds.

Teen leadership is a stepping stone to getting into PALS, which is required. Teen Leadership establishes a safe and secure environment. Students are taught emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Students learn to develop healthy self-concepts and relationships while also learning to understand the concept of personal responsibility, respect and acceptance of other people. It’s a class to also learn and grow as teenagers and relate to other peers, considering they’re in the same age group. 

Here at VMHS, PALS focuses on building relationships with students in LifeSkills. It’s an opportunity for students to interact with positive role models and a chance to have a positive impact on the overall school climate.

Teen Leadership and PALS audiences target teenagers who want to show acts of assistance and lend a helping hand.

 PALS shows students what a peer helping program is all about. Students are selected and trained to assist those in need and teach skills. Laura Guerra, Teen Leadership and PALS educator stated

 “Teen Leadership is an elective that students can request on their course selection sheet. There is no prerequisite for Teen Leadership; however, it’s a good idea to keep the end goal in mind, the end goal being to be placed in PALS as a senior.”  She additionally said “PALS is a class reserved for seniors. While filling out your choice sheet for your senior year, you must request PALS in addition to filling out an application and partaking in an interview to determine if you are a good candidate for the class.” 

Teen Leadership and PALS also show VMHS teens to help others become independent. They set everyday goals in hopes of accomplishing them to open doors. Laura Guerra stated

“Teen Leadership goals become more involved with the community by developing service-learning projects that will benefit VMHS as well as the community.” Guerra continued. “We would love to grow the program in general. Many students have expressed interest in joining PALS so I think it would be great to open more than one class. We would also like to create an account and begin fundraising so that we are able to travel to other schools and various PAL events the program hosts throughout the year.”

Teen Leadership and PALS open doors to meeting others and helping each other. This program has high benefits for students who gain healthy relationships with each other and use those skills to uplift one another. VMHS recommends students who have the same interests join to create bonds.