The YESS Institute

Subscribe to RSS feed Follow The YESS Institute on Twitter Visit The YESS Institute's Facebook page Visit The YESS Institute's YouTube page Visit The YESS Institute's GivingFirst page

May
21

YESS Mentoring Celebration May 22nd – Keynote Speaker Announcement

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

Denver Broncos’ # 30 Safety David Bruton to be Keynote Speaker
at YESS Institute’s Mentoring Celebration on May 22th @ 6:00 pm

DENVER, CO – YESS Institute is excited to announce the addition of Denver Broncos Safety David Bruton as the keynote speaker at its annual year-end celebration at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on May 22nd from 6:00-8:00pm. Produced entirely by YESS Institute mentees and peer mentors from Denver Public Schools North, West and Lincoln High Schools for their parents and the community. The YESS Mentoring Celebration recognizes the contributions and accomplishments of each student as they work toward high school graduation.

“David Bruton embodies the very essence of what the YESS Institute is teaching its students: community leadership, character development and the value of education,” said Carlo Kriekels, YESS Institute Co-founder & Executive Director. “The YESS Institute is honored and the students are "super psyched" that David will be addressing the YESS community at the 2013 YESS Mentoring Celebration at the Broncos Stadium.”

The YESS Institute provides high school students the skills to shift the negative cycle of poverty, dropout and violence into a positive cycle of leadership development, civic engagement and economic contribution. The YESS Institute supports role models, agencies and schools through innovative emotional intelligence curriculum and peer mentoring. In the past 10 years, YESS Institute has achieved a 85% graduation rate for students previously considered the most at-risk for dropping out of high school. YESS peer mentors win prestigious scholarships such as Daniels, Boetcher and Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarships.

David Bruton is a fourth-year safety whose 32 special-teams tackles over the last three seasons rank second on the club. David posted 97 tackles (61 solo) as a senior at Notre Dame that marked the third-highest single-season total by a defensive back in school history to earn honorable mention All-America recognition from The NFL Draft Report. Selected by Broncos in 2009 NFL Draft, David appeared in all 16 regular-season games in 2012, tying for sixth on the team with three special-teams stops.

Event will be held at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in East Club Lounge – Gate 7 – on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

Tags: YESS, YESS Mentoring Celebration

Leave comment

May
15

RSVP Today to Attend the 2013 YESS Mentoring Celebration

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

Buy Tickets HERE

This post has no tag

Leave comment

Mar
28

Thank You Rocky Mountain Active 20-30!

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

We are thrilled to announce that Rocky Mountain Active 20-30 supported the YESS Institute for the first time with a $5,000 donation. The $5,000 will go directly towards the West, Lincoln and North programs. Thank you Rocky Mountain Active 20-30 and Vice President, Lindsey Grebitus for your generous contribution.

Tags: 20-30, peer mentoring, yess institute

Leave comment

Mar
01

Thank You for Attending Our Happy Hour

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

Thank you for attending YESS's happy hour event last night.

We had a great time at Patxi's Chicago Pizza.

It was a great turnout and some wonderful raffle prizes were won.

Including a signed Bronco's Von Miller jersey!

We hope to be able to count on you for continued support in the future.

Thanks to people like you, we are achieving our mission and having fun doing it.

Thank YOU!

Tags: peer mentor, YESS

Leave comment

Feb
20

YESS Happy Hour at Patxi’s Next Wednesday

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

YESS Happy Hour at Patxis Next Wednesday

Tags: happy hour, patxi's, peer mentoring, YESS

Leave comment

Feb
13

Success Plans

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

The YESS program at Lincoln is back into the swing of things after a long winter break and several days off in the month of January. We are excited to welcome 11 new mentees to the program! The past couple weeks have been spent catching up on homework, getting to know new mentees and re-introducing the YESS curriculum. The students recently created their YESS Success Plans, laying out their attendance, academic and community service goals for themselves and describing barriers they face in attaining those goals and their strengths. We will reference their success plans throughout the semester to encourage them and track their progress in achieving the goals. With a bit of help and encouragement I have no doubt that every mentee will be able to achieve the goals they set out for themselves.

Some of the great goals set by mentees and mentors:

“I will go to all my classes”

“I will help my community by being a good example”

“I won’t get any Fs”

“I will get my grades high enough to play softball”

“I will talk to my mentee every day to help her go to class”

“I will listen in all my classes and turn in my homework”

Tags: Lincoln High School, peer mentoring, YESS

Leave comment

Jan
31

Back in Session

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

Back in session pic 1 300x162 Back in Session

The second semester is off to a fast start at West. Students practiced their GPA calculating skills upon returning to school and discovered some great improvements. They completed “Life Maps” by identifying what they want their futures to look like and creating related collages. They’ve gracefully welcomed new classmates, reviewed ESMART goals, and shared their motives and obstacles. We are looking forward to a semester even more successful than the first!

- Emily Webster, Program Specialist West High School

Back in session pic 2 300x178 Back in Session

Tags: life maps, mentoring, West High School

Leave comment

Jan
16

Christmas Toy and Food Basket Drive

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

xmas drive1 300x225 Christmas Toy and Food Basket Drive

The holiday season is often stressful for many families. Mr. Medina at Lincoln High School has worked to lessen the financial burden felt by YESS mentoring families during the holidays for the last six years. In November, mentors and mentees were given the chance to nominate their younger siblings for a Christmas toy drive. YESS uses the program as a reward for all the students’ hard work throughout the semester; the students take great joy in helping to put a smile on their younger brother or sister’s face. This year proved to be the biggest year yet. With donations from Toys for Tots, Mr. Medina and 14 YESS mentoring students put together and delivered toy bundles for 25 families and food baskets for 6 families, a rewarding experience for both the deliverers and recipients.

-Helen Penny, AmeriCorps Member & Program Specialist at Lincoln HS

xmas drive 2 300x225 Christmas Toy and Food Basket Drive

Tags: Lincoln High School, peer mentoring, YESS

Leave comment

Jan
15

New YESS Team Member

Categories:

BLOG

by Admin

Juli Furtek is excited to join the YESS Institute team.

She is a proud Colorado native, with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Colorado State University. She spent the last 6 years working in sales for a fast-paced tech startup in Denver. As Sales Director there, she created and implemented customer acquisition strategies and processes that grew the direct sales channel. Additionally, she was responsible for managing the company’s search engine marketing campaigns. Most recently, she functioned as the company’s Business Development Manager, where she directed strategic partner channel growth and maintained strong relationships with existing partners. In addition to enjoying everything Colorado has to offer, one of Juli’s passions is positively impacting Denver’s youth. She has served as a mentor for the Minds Matter program for the past 3 years, and she embraces the difference mentoring and leadership skills can make in children’s lives. She is looking forward to helping others and contributing to the YESS Institute’s ongoing success.