A girl reads colorful book about the first Native American Ballerina, Elizabeth Marie Tallchief

Founding Story

As teens, we had difficulty finding meaningful ways to serve our community. While we pursued many options, it often took time to engage with the right contact person, and several organizations did not accept volunteer applications for teens under 18 years old. We created Meaningful Teens to help kids our age find volunteer opportunities where they can make a real difference. After all, we are all Meaningful Teens.

Our journey began by providing bilingual education tutoring to low-income and immigrant seniors in our local community. After Covid struck in 2020, we could not meet these seniors in person. We scheduled a virtual class on a whim, and surprisingly, it worked. A new idea was born!

In March 2020, we created Meaningful Teens, an organization that teaches ELL learners English reading, writing, and reading comprehension. We identified additional programs interested in our online English tutoring services, including refugee groups, recent immigrants, DACA youth, affordable housing groups, and underserved communities. The participants were thrilled with the results. There was also a demand for our fellow teenagers and college students who wanted to give back. In only a short period, we organized hundreds of student volunteers with nonprofits from Oakland and beyond and expanded nationally.

- Carolyn, Aria, Carter, and Isabella

Isabella
Capelli

Team

Beverly Joukoff (Teacher/Advisor)

My forty-five-year passion for teaching can be witnessed as I encourage my students to believe in themselves and to strive to achieve their best. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with an undergraduate and graduate degree, I started my ten-year career in the Richmond Unified School District, where I educated students in High School, Middle School, and Elementary. There, I was recognized for introducing hands-on learning centers. Joining Mt. Diablo School District in 1996, I taught the John Hopkins’ Success for All reading program at Bel-Air Elementary and was certified in GLAD and CLAD teaching methods. I was awarded Teacher of the Year for Sequoia Elementary and was nominated for Teacher of the Year for the City of Pleasant Hill. I truly believe that every child can succeed.
Karen Preis (Teacher/Advisor)

I retired in 2018 after a thirty-year career in education, spent mostly teaching Spanish to middle school, high school, and community college students. During seventeen years at Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, California, I spent eight years as the assistant speech and debate coach. I won a coach’s award as my speech student took first place in the original oratory at the California State Championship. I was awarded the Robert Urban Memorial Award for Service by my peers, having participated as a co-chaperone for student immersion trips to Chile and to the homeless community of San Jose. I finished my career teaching Spanish and French to middle school students at The Harker School in San Jose. I believe in inspiring my students to be lifelong learners and model this value myself as I continue to tutor Spanish and take ongoing courses in French, German, and Hebrew. I hold teaching credentials in Spanish and French in California and Nevada. My B.A. in Spanish and my M.S. in Secondary Education are from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Haroula Reitz (Teacher/Advisor)

I have spent the last 25 years as an R&D and business executive with large multinational companies such as GE and Dow Corning and several smaller start-up organizations. I received my Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University, B.S. in Chemistry from New York University, and have continued my education with certifications in Lean/SixSigma. As a child of immigrants, I've always appreciated the power of learning and sought out opportunities in my career to move into unfamiliar areas and assimilate new information to positively impact organizations. During the pandemic, I saw firsthand how critical one-on-one support was for students attending school remotely with my two middle-school children. As a volunteer tutor, supervising teacher, and now an advisor, I can help the broader community. I can apply my business and organizational development skills to expand training material and develop tutors' processes to better access Meaningful Teens' reading curriculum. It’s extremely rewarding to see the growth of reading/language skills in the student participants and observe the increased confidence, leadership, and communication skills in all the tutors.
Thomas Au (Advisor)

I am a principal engineer at Earthlink who has been in the tech industry for 29 years. My passion for social service and philanthropy comes from my background as a Vietnam refugee. My family and I fled communist Vietnam during the Cold War in 1979, taking refuge on an island in Malaysia for a year. After a difficult year in Malaysia, my family was granted asylum in the USA in 1980. Since I was 10, I’ve worked tirelessly, graduating from the University of California, Irvine in 1992 with a degree in computer science. In my youth, I was forced to adapt to a new environment, language, and culture, so I know the hardships these young students are going through. My son and I run the technology behind Meaningful Teens, so we can enable MT students to have the essential one-on-one connections between student and mentor. I became a part of Meaningful Teens, so I can help the next generation of immigrants and refugees reach the American Dream they came here to find.
Donna Grim (Advisor)

I am a seasoned educational leader with thirty years of experience fourteen of which were spent teaching grades 4-8 and the rest as an elementary and middle school principal. I am also the principal at a national blue ribbon school. I have a deep passion for fostering educational environments that promote and build upon student's individual strengths.
Priya Macpherson (Advisor)

I am a 5th grade teacher at the Monarch Academy Public Schools and the Deputy Director and Co-Founder of Partnered for Success, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the development of high school foster and orphan youth who are aging out of the foster care system in the Phoenix Valley. I have also worked with Teach for America and fellow corps to incorporate best practices and strategies for students in the classroom. I am passionate about education and believe that every child should be given the chance to succeed.
Jacob Au (Website Manager & Zoom Coordinator)

I am a student attending the University of California San Diego who is passionate about technology and community. I am thrilled to work with Meaningful Teens where I can use my background in computers to help connect eager tutors with young students in need.