Goodbye and Good Luck Jenny

On August 13, MassCOSH’s Teens Lead @ Work Youth Programs Direct Jenny Fernandez transitioned to a new role at Boston Public Schools. While MassCOSH is incredibly sad to be losing Jenny, we wish her the best in her new role. In her six years at MassCOSH, she has grown TL@W into a powerful youth development and organizing program that has served thousands of teens with inspiring and high-quality programming. She has developed incredible relationships with our youth leaders and provided them the support and mentoring (and love!) they needed to fulfill their potential as MassCOSH and community leaders. MassCOSH will be hiring a new Youth Programs Director in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, we are fortunate to have Hakeem Foreman, TL@W Fellow, and Trent Jordan, TL@W alumni, on board to help us through this transition. Below are Jenny’s parting words.
 
I always knew that when I accepted my role as the Youth Program Director at MassCOSH that it would be challenging. However, I did not know that it would be so much fun. I have been able to work hand in hand with many amazing young leaders to combat workplace issues, injustices in our society, and helping everyone that walked into MassCOSH. Even though at times the work can be heartbreaking, we have always found moments to laugh, to heal, and make a difference in our communities because, like MassCOSH says, “mourn for the dead, but fight like hell for the living.” I want to say thank you to all the peer leaders that have ever spent time in the MassCOSH office. Thank you for making me laugh, thank you for making me a better supervisor, and thank you for making my job an amazing one. 

There was never a typical day at MassCOSH – it was always an adventure, and I enjoyed waking up every morning and heading to the bright and colorful MassCOSH office. I really and truly loved leading Teens Lead @ Work over the past six years. My many accomplishments have been made possible by the almighty staff at MassCOSH! Always ready for a challenge and always willing to help others. It’s been a blessing to work with such an incredibly hard-working and heartwarming team! From the potlucks we had together, the everlasting staff meetings, the wonderful events we put on, and I will never forget all the treats and gifts staff used to bring whenever they went out of state! Thank you for an amazing six years and I know we will continue to work together.