Sixteen Wood County high school students representing seven school districts gathered
at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, last month with other teens from across Ohio
to learn more about guiding their schools, community and county in a positive
and safe way.
The training, held July 15-19, was part of Ohio Teen Institute, a leadership 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 explore ways to have a good time
while avoiding drug and alcohol use and the problems they create. Each summer,
key student leaders are chosen to gather at Kenyon College to re-energize, learn
additional leadership skills, and prepare for the upcoming year.
Students who were selected to attend this year’s training were:
Katie Baker, Emily Drake and Jessica Root, all of Bowling Green; Carli Kehres,
Eastwood; Daniel Martinez, Sylvia Morris, Mitchel Pack and Karris Pugh, all from
Lake; Becka Adkins of North Baltimore; Geri Stickles of Otsego; Daniel Ingle,
Kayla Taylor-Hackathorn and Rachel Wendt, all of Penta, and Ali Kopp,
Perrysburg.
Additionally, the following students were chosen to serve as youth staff at the Teen
Institute event: Kandi King (Lake/Penta) and Jeremy TenEyck (Rossford/Penta).

Serving as adult staff at the state retreat were Jeanine Lindquist, a prevention
specialist with the Wood County Educational Service Center’s School &
Community-Based Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Prevention Program, formerly
serving in the Lake school district.
Adult participants were Emily Krynock, a prevention specialist with the Wood County
Educational Service Center’s School & Community-Based ATOD Prevention
Program, serving in the Otsego and Bowling Green school districts, and Katie
Fritz, a student intern from Bowling Green State University.
Registration fees for participants were paid by the Wood County Educational Service
Center through a grant from the Wood County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental
Health Services Board, and by Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug
Addiction Services.