About Us

 

Teen Trendsetters™ Reading Mentors is an award-winning program that recruits and trains high school students to mentor elementary students in reading. This one-on-one mentoring does more than help elementary students, it improves their reading skills and forges a rewarding relationship for the third graders and a lasting sense of achievement and responsibility for their teen mentors.

Teen Trendsetters™ Reading Mentors was created in 2002 by Jeb Bush's Governor's Mentoring Initiative and Florida Trend's Next, a magazine for high school students. Today under the leadership of Jeb Bush as our honorary chair, the Volunteer USA Foundation is pleased to help expand Teen Trendsetters™. In Florida, the program grew from 30 students in 2002 to over 3,000 teens and third graders in 2008. We're starting again with 30 LEAD teens from around the southeast with the intent of growing the mentoring movement quickly. Each LEAD Teen Trendsetter™ will start a Teen Trendsetters™ Club at his or her high school. These 15 or so Teen Trendsetters™ Club members will mentor at a local elementary school at least once a week.

Select teens are thoroughly prepared for mentoring and are trained to work with BrainStorm™, a specialized 40-minute curriculum. BrainStorm™ includes three topic areas, each with a 10-session, skill-based student magazine, a comprehensive tutor guide, and books that become part of the elementary student's home library. Teens meet with their third-grade students once a week for a minimum of 20 weeks during the school year. Volunteer USA Foundation was founded in August 2007. We advocate for mentoring and literacy programs as the heart of how we improve families' lives.

We believe that, by empowering others to lead and take action, we will expand our movement. At the heart of our movement is the belief that every volunteer in our program provide at least one hour a week helping a child or an adult.

We believe that, by empowering others to lead and take action, we will expand our movement. At the heart of our movement is the belief that every volunteer in our program provide at least one hour a week helping a child or an adult.