Before MTW, I had some idea of what I wanted to do with my life but didn't know how to get there. My favorite part about working at MTW was all of the site visits we went on. We got to learn about all different types of work places. I learned so much at More Than Words, including punctuality, public speaking skills, and how to be a great barista. My cafe skills are so good now that at my new job, they call me the King of Baristas!

I'm now working at Panera and Year Up and loving both jobs. Year Up is a program where you get to work on your education and employment goals in the same place. For the first 6 months, I'm taking classes in business communications, business essentials, customer service, and a hands-on IT class. I'm training to get my Cisco certification. After 6 months of classes, I'll get a hands-on internship for 6 months to finish up my credits and graduate, and then hopefully get a job in IT customer service.

In transitions, we watched the documentary, "Coexist," about what life is like in Rwanda after the genocide. There was a horrible genocide in Rwanda where 800,000 people were killed over 100 days. Now 16 years later, people who killed and people who had friends and family members murdered are living next door to each other, learning how to reconcile and forgive. It was quite emotional and hard to see people telling their horrifying ordeals. Now the people of Rwanda are working together to rebuild what they've lost. It was a very educational and moving film, and we had an interesting discussion about what it means to be able to forgive and reconcile in our own lives. We'd like to thank Mishy Lesser and Robert Koenig for showing us such an interesting film.

INSPIRATION AT THE TOWN HALL

By: Katya

On May 24th, we went to a Town Hall meeting at Harvard Law School. We all listened to the speakers talk about what they had in mind to change the way foster care works and how it affects youths' education. It was very inspirational, and we even had 2 of our team members, Robert and Jill, stand up to ask some questions and talk about MTW and what we do. Afterward we went down to the lobby and met with everyone. We all enjoyed some refreshments and had some very interesting conversations with all of these people that dedicate their time to moving youth towards outcomes.

YOUTH ROCK THE VOTE

By: Yuri

MTW went on a site visit to MassVote, a youth run organization in Boston. Mass Vote is an organization that helps make youth aware that they can make a difference by voting. What the youth at MassVote really expressed was that they were trying to pass a bill that would allow youth 16 and up to register to vote. If this bill passes, it will greatly increase youth voting and make a huge difference for current and future generations of youth. We also did a really fun activity! We played a game where we learned that being able to be heard and making a difference can be really hard when individuals don't realize that they have the power to make an impact. They let us know that even one vote can make a difference! We learned a lot and it was fun to be surrounded by other youth who are working hard to better not only their own lives, but the lives of youth all over Massachusetts. We'd like to thank Jasmine for setting up such a great site visit!


What is Transitions at MTW? Also known as the YOU job, Transitions is the time we devote to working on our personal goals surrounding our education, employment, and self-efficacy. To learn more, click here.

We want to give a huge thank you to BNY Mellon and FM Global! BNY Mellon connected us with a group of volunteers from FM Global who came and helped out in our store. They helped us pre-scan donations, shelve books, and manage sections. This moved our business forward a lot because they helped us get books into our online inventory and helped organize our store so that our customers can find books easily. Once again, a big thank you to BNY Mellon and FM Global. We really appreciate the support!

GROTON SCHOOL'S HELPING HAND

By: Robert

We want to give a special thank you to the Groton School for donating a huge amount of books to MTW! They ran a book drive and pulled in 1500 books in just two weeks!! The students were given an assignment to collect books from their friends and families over a long weekend and then bring them back to donate to MTW. We are so grateful for their help and want to say thank you again for their time and hard work!