Sep. 21, 2022
Volunteers of the Week: PeerCorp’s Teens’ Passion to Give Back
The Detroit Jewish News
This article originally appeared in The Detroit Jewish News on September 21, 2022.
Repair the World Detroit PeerCorps volunteers weed garden beds at Keep Growing Detroit, which is one of their service partners during the year.
Meet two teens who actively volunteer with Repair the World’s PeerCorps High Program.
Jillian Vondell, 16, of Bloomfield Hills and Naveen Jackson, 16, of Commerce Township have both been nominated by the Repair the World for their active participation in PeerCorps High Detroit, the nonprofit’s teen service-learning program.
“Jillian and Naveen have been a wonderful addition to our PeerCorps cohort last year,” said Brittany Feldman, Youth and Family senior program associate for Repair the World.
“Jillian is very passionate about social justice issues that impact her community, such as the climate crisis and food insecurity. In addition to being a part of PeerCorps High, she also started a club at her school through a nonprofit organization called Girls Who Code, which aims to support and increase the number of women in the computer science field.”
This isn’t the first year Jillian has been involved with the PeerCorps program. She says she first learned about it when she was getting volunteer hours for her bat mitzvah.