Don Lugo students Lizzet Luna, Yesenia Cazares, Gabriela Gandara, Madeleine Ramirez, and Adrie Villa are voting members of the City of Chino teen advisory committee. These students are actively involved in our community by creating virtual events to help teens stay connected and involved during quarantine, which can be especially difficult for students who are so used to seeing each other on campus.

The teen advisory committee is a liaison between the Commission and the teens. Their job is to connect the two groups and provide innovative programming for the teen population alongside Community Services Staff. This leadership group consists of twelve teens from four of the high schools in CVUSD.

They are chosen to give essential input on their teen demographic while being the spokespeople for the teens of Chino.  They do various service projects. For example, they conduct jean drives, canned food drives, and hygiene drives.  They volunteer their time at events and programs.

However, since quarantine, these board members have been given the difficult task of carrying over that same student engagement to a virtual, COVID-19 safe platform. They have been throwing virtual bingo and trivia nights over Zoom. On estimate, 10-12 students attend and are able to socialize over zoom while playing these interactive games. The times do vary so it is important to stay in tune with their website. Events that are coming up include Holiday trivia (Dec 22), an ugly sweater listening party (23), virtual bingo(28), and holiday paint night (30). The Holiday paint night is the only event with a fee of 5$.

The committee highly encourages students to turn on their cameras and to motivate them to do so, the committee turns their cameras on to interact with the students. This is a great opportunity to get more involved in the city while also meeting teens your age. Gabriela Gandara, a sophomore on the committee, says, “it’s a great way to network with people.”

Participating is a great way to make new connections with people that you’ve never met. Madeleine Ramirez, a sophomore on the committee, says, “It really gives a big sense of community.” Additionally, it’s very affordable, a lot of the events are either free or are cheap especially since they all are virtual because of the pandemic. It’s a great way to de-stress while having fun during stressful times where we are all separated from each other.

The teen advisory committee has given students a way to meet new people and stay social even in quarantine. Don Lugo has 5 of their own students on the committee constantly giving their input and representing the school while doing it. Whether your staying connected by volunteering or simply participating in the events, it’s a good way to stay social with teens in quarantine while still staying safe.