NORTH BRUNSWICK – The township high school has implemented the Teen Prevention Education Program into its available curriculum for seniors.
Teen PEP is part of the Senior Leadership program that includes health and physical education requirements and the Transition Project that pairs seniors with incoming freshmen. Both the Transition Project and Teen PEP teach seniors to be peer educators so they can conduct outreach sessions. The topics coincide with the state standards for comprehensive health and physical education.
The five-credit PEP course counts as part of the health curriculum and includes outreach sessions with freshmen, parents and community groups and hands-on activities. The program focuses on relationships, respect, decision making, peer pressure, public speaking, gender issues, tolerance, bullying, suicide, etc.
Teen PEP accepts 50 students through an application process. The participants must be role models with commendable attendance and behavior records.
So far, the Transition Project has been successful in helping freshmen deal with adjusting to high school, as well as social issues in general. The freshmen feed off the experience of the upperclassmen.
“It’s a bond that they develop,” said lead adviser Debra Serafin.
In May, the high school was officially accepted into the Teen PEP program, and the course will be implemented in the fall.
The other advisers are Ann Valerio, Tracy Latchaw and Sean Tonne, all of whomhave been through a year of training that will continue through this summer.
North Brunswick can also aspire to be a veteran PEP school and help start other schools inMay. The requirement is a year of adviser training and a year of implementation with the students, including the outreach sessions.
The program is sponsored by the Princeton Center for Leadership Training, HiTops Inc. and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.