Fifteen Wood County high school students traveled to Kenyon College in Gambier recently to join other
teens from across the state for an Ohio Teen Institute five-day program.
Ohio Teen Institute is a leadership training program that focuses on development of resistance skills to
peer pressure and drug and alcohol abuse.
Student leaders in Wood County meet several times per year to be trained, to train others in these
leadership strategies, and to show them ways to have a good time without bringing drugs and alcohol into
the picture. Each summer, key student leaders gather at Kenyon College to re-energize, learn more, and
prepare for the upcoming year.
Surveys returned by Wood County students after the retreat reported the training made them a better
leader. The majority of students also reported that they would use what they learned to help recruit new
members to Teen Institute and help spread the group’s message in their schools.
Students who attended, and their school district, included Emily Drake from Bowling Green; Carli Kehres,
Eastwood; Kandie King, Karris Pugh, Daniel Ingle, Breanna Reardon and Amber Studyvin, all from Lake;
Becky Adkins, Ashley Baisden, Ashlee Quantic and Tessa Reinman, all from North Baltimore; Andrea Howard,
Northwood; Jeremy TenEyck and Dustin Bolton, both at Penta Career Center; and Ali Kopp, Perrysburg.
Additionally, Bridget Cushard, a graduate of Bowling Green High School, and Kaylyn Haynes, from Lake High
School, sere chosen to serve as youth staff at the Teen Institute event.
Jeanine Lindquist, a prevention specialist with the Wood County Educational Service Center’s School
& Community-Based ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug) Prevention Program served as adult
staff at the state retreat.
Registration fees for participants were paid by the Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction
Services and by the Wood County Educational Service Center through a grant from the Wood County Alcohol,
Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board.