May
16

YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!

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What a great way to cap off such a successful year of programming!  The YESS Institute held its annual year-end celebration at North High School acknowledging and celebrating its students and their families in an all-around fabulous evening event.  The event included a special student-led ceremony complete with a nod to the all of the mothers for Dia de las Madres (Mothers' Day), a keynote by Denver Bronco #91 Robert Ayers, award presentations and a fabulous home-cooked meal.

Denver Bronco, #91 Robert Ayers, spoke directly to the heart of our students, giving advice to consider their choice in friends, consequences of their actions and the importance of the YESS program.  Ayers reminded the students that "nothing is easy, nobody is perfect, and we always mess up.  Understand that things aren't going to be easy.  If they were, everybody would have it.  But it's not.  So you have to work, be dedicated and put hours and hours of work into whatever it is."  His speech really resonated with the entire audience and we are so thankful he could join us for the evening.  Check out the Denver Broncos' blog entry on the evening to read more about Ayer's wonderful speech: Ayers Gives Keynote Speech.

Please enjoy some of our favorite pictures from the evening:

   1830841401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!  3979741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!
Some of our YESS students up on stage

      4392741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!           2392741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!
 Students from North High School (top) and Abraham Lincoln High School share their stories from the past year

5192741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year! 
Keynote Speaker: #91 Robert Ayers speaking to our students

5492741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!
Our Cofounder/Executive Director receives a surprise gift!

8089741401103 300x200 YESS and Denver Bronco Robert Ayers Celebrate the End of the Year!
Three West High School students enjoy their goodies and dinner at the reception

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May
09

Denver Bronco, Robert Ayers, to Be Keynote Speaker for YESS End of Year Celebration

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Denver Broncos' # 91 Defensive End Robert Ayers to be Keynote Speaker at YESS Institute's YESS Mentoring Celebration on May 10th

 

YESS Institute is excited to announce the addition of Robert Ayers as the keynote speaker at its annual year-end celebration at Denver Public Schools North High School on May 10th from 6:00-8:00pm. Produced entirely by YESS Institute mentees and mentors from North, West and Lincoln High Schools for their parents and the community, the YESS Mentoring Graduation recognizes the contributions and accomplishments of each student as they work toward high school graduation.

 

"Robert Ayers 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 Robert will be addressing them at the YESS Mentoring 2012 Graduation Event." 

 

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 through peer mentoring and emotional intelligence. 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 92% graduation rate for students previously considered the most at-risk for dropping out of school.

 

Robert Ayers is a fourth-year defensive end who was drafted by the Broncos in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft from the University of Tennessee. He has played in 42 games for the Broncos and totaled 96 tackles, 4.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. Born in Jersey City, N.J., Ayers attended high school in Bennettsville, S.C.

 

Event will be held at Denver Public Schools North High School - 2960 Speer Blvd, Denver, CO80211 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm in school auditorium robertayers 237x300 Denver Bronco, Robert Ayers, to be Keynote Speaker for YESS End of Year Celebration

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Apr
19

Blog: We Are the YESS Mentors!

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It is often easy to judge students based on their academic performance and attendance, but hard to take a step back and try to understand the reasons behind their failing grades. We, the YESS mentors, are group of juniors and seniors at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver attempting to understand students’ poor performance and help create positive changes in their lives by providing a supportive community within the school. We are 25 students who run the YESS mentoring program that meets every Tuesday and Thursday after school with the support of Daniel Medina, the school attendance liaison and Sampada Joshee, the YESS facilitator. The mentors in our program are each matched with one 9th grader, the mentees. The mentees in our program are from various backgrounds that include freshmen involved in gang violence, teen mother, homeless, recovering addicts etc. We not only help them with academics but also work together to empower the 9th graders to move towards positivity rather than being trapped in the vicious circle of negativity. Additionally, we help them build social and emotional skills by teaching various emotional intelligence curriculums (trained by the YESS facilitator) that will help their lives beyond the school. The mentees in our program have not only improved their grades but have also acquired social competency and are more integrated in the school. The program has helped them to become happier in school which is promoting their emotional health.

Program meeting 300x225 Blog: We are the YESS Mentors!
Caption: YESS Mentors at Lincoln High School empowering the mentees during one of the YESS mentoring sessions

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Apr
12

YESS Mentoring Article in Denver North Star

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Our fabulous North High School YESS Mentoring Program was recently featured in North High School's paper, The Denver North Star.  We are so proud of our students and all of their achievements.  Please take a look at the article online by clicking this link: Denver North Star: YESS Mentoring.

IMG 0700 300x225 YESS Mentoring Article in Denver North Star

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Mar
29

Burnout Prevention Workshop

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On March 22, 2012, our co-founder and Executive Director, Carlo Kriekels, led a brilliant training on Burnout Prevention.  This training, put on by the Youth Mentoring Collaborative and the Denver Quality After-school Connection focused on the importance of preventing burnout, something so prevalent in the nonprofit field.  Nonprofit staff from all over the Denver Metro area came to the workshop to learn great tips and share their own experiences.  Carlo used themes such as the Love Cup, the Wheel of Burnout and others to introduce the participants to the underlying causes of burnout.  The presentation was a hit with over 90 attendees!  To find out more about how to book trainings, click here.

wheel of burnout 205x300 Burnout Prevention Workshop

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Mar
28

CNTV Makes a Documentary on YESS Mentoring

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Over the past few weeks, the YESS Institute has been collaborating with CNTV to create a 13-minute documentary on the YESS Mentoring program.  The documentary focuses on the program at North High School where the mentoring program is an actual class during the school day.  Watch the video and you'll see the program in action, along with some testimonials from our co-founder Carlo Kriekels and a few students.  We think it's a great video and urge you to watch it to see our program in action!

 

 

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Mar
14

West HS February ’12 Update

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We hope you enjoy this little success story from our program at West High School for the February monthly update!

The Mentee of the Month moved even further away from West during January 2012 and now has to
make at least 2 bus transfers to just get to school. He had struggled previously to attend classes. When he joined YESS,
he had 70% attendance. He managed to improve his attendance to 77% in the first semester with the
encouragement of his mentor. Nonetheless, he still earned 4 Fs.

However, his attendance was 100% for the month of February! His Geography teacher recently
commended him as most improved and while he still has 2 Fs, he also has a few A’s and B’s-
something he said he hasn’t done in a ‘long, long time’.

 

We're very proud of our Mentee of the Month at West High School!  Click here to learn more about the program at West.

Stars of the Week Oscar Armando 300x225 West HS February 12 Update
Mentee Armando (left) hanging with his Mentor Oscar (right).

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Mar
09

Win a Car and Support YESS at the Same Time!

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CFK Music Note Left 300x79 Win a Car and Support YESS at the same time!

pic of car. final 300x171 Win a Car and Support YESS at the same time!

The YESS Institute is excited to be a part of Concerts for Kids' "A Million for What Matters" Game of Skill!  YESS is selling tickets for the contest that will take place at their Day of Rock event on May 26th at 6:30pm.

So about this car…what do I win?

  • A 2012 Black Ford Mustang!!
  • Generously donated by our friends at Sill-Terhar Motors, Inc.
  • Total value of the car: $27,900

I'm In! How can I play?

  • Contact us to buy a "game of skill" ticket for $10 (before April 30, 2012!)
  • Guess how much the band Air Dubai weighs.  Make sure to take into account all members, instruments and equipment!
    • Guess to the nearest hundredth of a pound (Ex: 121.23 or 143.01, etc.)
    • The closest guess WINS!
  • There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy!

Air Dubai Group Photo 300x199 Win a Car and Support YESS at the same time!

Our fabulous band: Air Dubai!

How does this support YESS?

  • The great people at Concerts for Kids are reallocating all of the proceeds of the sold tickets back to the nonprofit that sells them.
  • So when you buy a ticket from us, YESS will get 100% of the proceeds!

 

Now doesn't that sound fun?  We'd love to see a YESS supporter win this fabulous car so make sure to get your ticket today!

 

Email us or call 720-437-9543 to find out more information.

Learn more about Concerts for Kids
Check out the official rules

SillTerHar Logo 300x156 Win a Car and Support YESS at the same time!

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Mar
01

YESS Collaborates With CLACE

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      For the past ten years, the YESS Institute has been teaching leadership and mentoring workshops to the community, as well as running high school peer mentoring programs.   Co-Founder and Executive Director, Carlo Kriekels, stopped by CLACE (Latin American Center for Arts, Science and Education) to lead a couple workshops on presentation skills for our students involved with AGUAS.  Carlo dug down deep to talk about what is really behind the fear of public speaking, and how to combat those fears.  Using activities like the “trust bridge” and a mock presentation, Carlo was able to build the students’ confidence and make them feel fully prepared to lead their own presentation. 

Check out the thank you letter from CLACE to Carlo! (PDF)

clace 300x224 YESS Collaborates with CLACE                                          clace3 YESS Collaborates with CLACE

clace2 300x59 YESS Collaborates with CLACE

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Feb
28

The Power of Habit in School Engagement

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Charless Duhigg’s new book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, focuses on business success or failure.  However, let’s apply this to education: the dropout crisis, school engagement and graduation rates.  We have seen students in our programs catapult their grades from straight Fs to As and then consequently bomb them back into the basement of Fs.  Why? Attending classes, paying attention and doing homework on time is a habit, a pattern, a behavior that needs to be learned, practiced and rehearsed.  Just as they’ve created a habit of ditching class, they need to create the habit of going to class.

The “habit loop” that Duhigg talks about consists of a cue, the behavior and the reward.  A cue is triggered by the resulting reward, which then turns into a behavior, and so on.  So what happens when the personal reward for ditching is higher than for getting As?  Students will ditch class.  We believe that in order to shift these habits and behaviors, one has to look at the beliefs, thoughts, and values of the student as these determine the quality of reward sought.  The book states that one of the keys is to change a significant behavior or “keystone habit”, which will then unlock other patterns.

            The author talks about community as “a giant collection of habits.” As habits determine community and community drives school culture, one can then shift school culture by assessing and adjusting the habits in and around his building. 

 

IMG 0376 300x225 The Power of Habit in School Engagement
Students at North High School working on a YESS project

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