Van Buren County Leadership Advisor Kelly Lewis received Teen Advisor of the Year award at the 2023 Tennessee Teen Institute (TTI) camp.
Lewis works with student leadership to promote healthy choices such as avoiding vaping. She said she was surprised to receive this year’s award and said there were many advisors present who were just as deserving.
“I could name probably another five to ten, just off the top of my head, that would be just wonderful that need to be acknowledged also,” Lewis said. “So I was very surprised and very honored to recieve the acknowledgement.”
Lewis said she attended camp with 12 students and another advisor from Van Buren. She said together they determined the most pressing issues in teen health.
Lewis said student decisions made at camp determine the community action plan for the year.
“They felt that vaping was probably the largest issue among our students,” Lewis said.
Lewis said a lot of people think of vaping as an unhealthy behavior. She said people do not realize how vaping affects you socially and mentally.
“We learned there is a huge correlation between vaping, anxiety and depression,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the second issue chosen was bullying. She said although they call it bullying, it is more an attitude of sarcasm and making fun at the expense of others that seemed to be popular in today’s culture.
“So they’d like to increase kindness and decrease bullying in the school,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she will continue working with the team to effect change on the issues of vaping and bullying.
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