MEET SCHOLARSHIP AWARD WINNER: LAURA COFFMAN
We are excited to introduce you to Laura Coffman, the recipient of our 2008 Living Leadership Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to graduates of Teen Leadership Breakthrough who have consistently applied the skills learned in Teen Leadership Breakthrough and have created impressive results.
Since graduating from Rapport, Laura has received the Outstanding Youth Community Achievement award for her active involvement with South Oregon Drug Awareness (SODA), a non-profit organization. Last year, she won the National Student Television Award for excellence as a co-writer and co-producer of a public service announcement on the prevention of underage drinking. Capitalizing on the public speaking skills from her Teen Leadership Breakthrough training, she has spoken before one thousand people on the steps of Washington, DC regarding alcohol abuse prevention.
Laura views her life as “before and after Rapport.” Before her training, her family experienced a lack of communication and had difficulty expressing their needs and feelings toward each other. After the program, Laura became eager to tell her father, a Leadership Breakthrough One graduate, how much he meant to her. She developed a clearer understanding of his love and affection for his family. She also noticed an improvement in her grades and her relationships with teachers and peers.
According to Laura, “After I graduated from Rapport it seemed that my whole life changed within a week.” Moved by her experience, Laura set out on a mission to enroll her friends into Teen Leadership Breakthrough. With her father’s support she devised a plan: she wrote a letter about her training, what it meant to her and her desire to see others benefit from the program. Within one year, five of her close friends attended the training. Determined to touch even more lives, the Rogue Valley Recharge Group in Medford, Oregon was born. The Group currently raises money to send teens through Rapport’s Teen Leadership Breakthrough.
Congratulations, Laura! We are confident you will continue to show up big and serve as an example of living leadership throughout your life!
