“Ruthie Woods spent a year volunteering at the Mattapan Teen Center. She was relatable, kind, down to earth and very helpful. The youth would always look forward to seeing her at the teen center. She helped lead our garden club and manage what we called the living room. The living room area was where youth would play pool, xbox, chat with friends, hang out and be themselves. Having an adult volunteer so genuine and wanting to just be listening ear for the youth was essential. Our youth have long, sometimes hard days at school so having Ruthie be available to chat and hear about their days in a non judgemental way, offer advice and/or just and play games with them made a world of a difference for many of our youth. Ruthie brought in Lani Peterson, co-facilitated a four week workshop where the teens were able to look deeper into their identity, their stories and discover new strength.The youth were able to find empowerment in their life story as well as their peers, strengthening their self advocacy and public speaking skills as young leaders in their community. Ruthie was a wonderful asset to our team and she would always be welcomed back to help with the youth of the Mattapan Teen Center. .”

—Abrianna Morales Program Manager, Boston

“Ruby is a very organized, professional, collaborative, and detail-oriented engineer who is always eager to improve. She is curious, asks great questions, and is ready to find the answers. Any organization would be lucky to have her as a software engineer.”

— Nicole Gathany Software Engineer, Teachers Pay Teachers