How often do we hear and read criticisms about young people, especially teens, in the press, the Internet, and gossip? The answer is much too often.
But who pays attention to all the kids – and I firmly believe they’re the majority – who help their families, take care of their siblings, work hard to get into post high school jobs and education, engage in both extracurricular activities and part-time work, and give back to their communities? I have been on scholarship committees at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, and I can tell you with certainty that they are everywhere.
But it’s not only reading scholarship applications that has impressed me (and I’ll tell you honestly, that in my generation, we never could have competed with the young people of today). I have seen the strength of teens today in person. WAMS runs a summer education program, Summer CUBS, at Woodland Academy in Worcester. Every summer we provide educational enrichment and summer learning loss prevention support to elementary school students ages five to twelve. An important component of the program is the internship program. We hire five local high school students as paid interns to work with the children as mentors and wranglers (Moving kids from classroom to classroom and safely on field trips is a challenge!). The interns are kind, responsible, and good with the younger students. And many leave at the end of the CUBS day to go to other jobs. Strong teens.
WAMS leads an annual Book Drive that started as part of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration a few years ago. It has become a six-month project that in 2025, resulted in our delivering more than 1,000 new books to second and third graders in local elementary schools in areas of high poverty. With the support of Tidepool Bookshop, we have a big presence at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day Community Breakfast.
On January 19, 2026, students from North High in Worcester and Worcester Technical High School volunteered as coat checkers and ushers at the Breakfast. Generous people attending the Breakfast gave the students tips.
My colleagues and I were blown away when, at the end of the Breakfast, the students donated all their tips – more than $250 – to the Book Drive. The money could have bought the teens things they wanted. Instead, they made sure that children coming behind them had new books of their own to take home, read, and be proud of.
These young people are our future. It doesn’t look too bad.