Rhinoa Beverly, a senior at Wadsworth High School, was awarded JOG leader of the year for 2025 in November.

Being in JOG helps students progress in educational and workforce fields. It is designed for individuals aged 14-24, offering job fairs that help them progress in their careers.

“It’s a program for Ohio undergraduates,” Beverly said. “They help people ages 14 to 24 develop work skills, and help us graduate high school.”

Beverly has been doing this since her Junior year with Lauren Eakens, the JOG teacher of Wadsworth High School.

“I tried to get her in at the beginning or at the end of her sophomore year, but she was just kind of reluctant to join,” Eakens said.

Eakens describes how Beverly was just as shy as most students who come to her to join, and she explains how the program is designed to help them overcome that.

Beverly’s speech, written by Eakens, consisted of a talk about leadership, bringing up her exemplary color guard captains. Callista Kuzmik(12), Keria Hutchinson (12) and Isabella Lewis (11).

“What is leadership?” Beverly said in her speech. “I know three amazing girls who demonstrate this skill every week, as they are the captains of the Wadsworth High School color guard.”

Through the speech, Beverly breaks down her captains by a key quality they possess and then explains in further detail how that ties into leadership.
Kuzmik is identified as a problem solver, Hutchinson as kindness and Lewis as motivation.

“With all these outstanding characteristics, these girls demonstrate what leadership should be,” Beverly said.

“She loves helping people,” Eakens said. “Whether that’s her fellow classmates, whether that’s an adult that she doesn’t know, whether that’s her neighbors that needed babysitting, she treats everyone who comes in contact with her with respect.”

The main aspects of JOG, Eakens explains, are the struggles you overcome to get to somewhere you were scared to go.

“Teach them that they cannot follow their struggles to define them of who they are but overcome those and become successful,” Eakens said.

During these speeches, several schools attend the events, where they are given a topic to write about, and their teacher helps them prepare a speech tailored to the individual.

“She [Eakens] had me write a couple of things down, and then I wrote a story about people who I think are leaders and why I liked them,” Beverly said. “And I picked apart ideas, and she made an entire paper for me.”

Beverly delivered a 462-word speech in front of a couple of hundred people, which earned her the JOG Leader of the Year award for Medina County.

In past years, Eakens had another student, Brianna Becerra, who had also won JOG Leader of the Year in 2023.