By Yaneli Liranzo

Teen Pep is a handpicked class of juniors that interview to be a part of Teen Pep Class 1. To be selected for Class 1 is a quite an honor and a responsibility.

This class provides us with valuable information regarding pregnancies and the great benefits of birth control. It shows how young people should be responsible for their own lives.

Once we have learned all we need to be good counselors, we share this information with underclassmen in workshops. Each year, the Passaic Board of Education allows the Teen Pep class to participate in what we call our “Teen Pep Retreat.”

This event takes place in a five-star hotel located in Princeton. This is the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen.

Why do we get to stay in a hotel for three days? The purpose of this trip is to form a bond with our other teen peppers. To deal with the sensitive topics that we do, there needs to be a close bond and comradery.

The Princeton retreat was amazing. Every day we awoke to a well-served breakfast buffet, lunch and dinner with unlimited snacks in between. It was hard not to gain a few pounds on this trip.

We spent the days getting to know one another more and more through various planned activities. We performed activities dealing with our personal views and experiences. This helped us see the best and worst of each other, and especially in ourselves.

We learned darkest and greatest parts of each other, and in the end we gained a new and deep respect for each other. Truthfully, they have all grown to be like my second family. Whenever I happen to feel like I have nobody to talk with, I know my teen peppers are always there for me.

Now, whenever we work as a group we feel comfortable to work with each other and with anybody else, we work so much better this way. We work as a team. Furthermore, by getting training and working together, allows us to perform at our best for the incoming freshmen.

One thing truly amazing about this class is that I trust all my club mates so much, I feel comfortable speaking about anything because we learned to deal with each other and also because it is all confidential. What happens in teen pep, stays in teen pep! And this class gets better and better, which helps our fellow Indians!