Teen Institute hopes to offer students a chance to have fun with each other while remaining drug and alcohol free.

Senior Ryan Nadzam, President of Teen Institute, talked about the functions Teen Institute performs.

“Teen Institute is a fun club with a great mix of people. We get together about once a month and then we have one event each trimester and we are a great group of kids and remain drug free,” Nadzam said.

Junior member of Teen Institute Breanna Greenfield explained the purpose of Teen Institute.

“[The purpose of Teen Institute is] to bring about drug awareness and to help other kids know that they can be drug free. It is also a place where you can talk about all problems, not just [those] related to drugs,” Greenfield said.

Teen Institute’s new advisor, Bonnie Simonelli, also expressed her expectations for the club.

“[The purpose of Teen Institute is] to provide a safe place for students to meet and talk about things, feel supported in their choices not to use drugs [also] to have fun and do things that they feel is important,” Simonelli said.

Greenfield explained why she decided to become a member of Teen Institute.

“I had some friends that were in it freshman year and I really liked the supervisor and I just thought that it would be fun,” Greenfield said.

Nadzam explained why he decided to be involved in Teen Institute.

“I joined my freshman year and I thought that it would be nice to meet some upperclassmen and make some new friends in the school. Plus, one of my friends was already in it so I decided to get some new friends and get involved with a new kind of crowd,” Nadzam said.

Simonelli explained her favorite aspect of being involved with Teen Institute.

“[My favorite thing about Teen Institute is] the kids. They’re a lot of fun and they know what they are doing which is good because I’m new here so they know what they want to and I like that they are all leaders and they are kids who really just want to have fun,” Simonelli said.

Teen Institute meets once a month in the in the cafeteria or teacher’s lounge at RHS and has an outside of school meeting once every trimester.