Slight in stature but strong in character, Jenni Ruiz is a ​survivor.

A 2016 graduate of Boys Town High School, Jenni spent a year and a half as a resident of the Family Home Program^SM in the Village of Boys Town, Nebraska.

The experience proved to be both healing and inspiring.  

"I really enjoyed Boys Town," Jenni said. "I enjoyed the support I received, the help from teachers and just the motivation people gave me. They inspired me to try my hardest to be someone in this world."

Jenni's appreciation for Boys Town today is a complete reversal from when the South Omaha native first arrived on campus.  

It was a midafternoon when Jenni's mother picked her up from school, presumably, Jenni thought, to take her to a medical appointment. But when the drive ended, Jenni wasn't at the clinic. She was standing outside the Boys Town Admissions Office.

"I wasn't expecting it to happen," Jenni remembered. "I was mad; furious really. I didn't even get to say goodbye to my younger brother and sister."

The trip to Boys Town was the result of months of Jenni sneaking around and skipping school and a souring attitude that had broken the mother-daughter relationship. Jenni and her mother rarely spoke, and it was a tumultuous time.

Not only had Jenni made many bad choices, she also had been robbed of her optimism and innocence: a family acquaintance had sexually assaulted her, further deepening her feelings of isolation and aimlessness.  

While Jenni's shock at suddenly becoming a "Boys Town kid" slowly subsided, her first month on campus wasn't easy.

"I didn't know anyone, and it was awkward to sit in the classroom trying to get caught up on all the assignments the other kids had already done," Jenni recalled.

But continued support and guidance from Family-Teachers^® Joey and Heather Butler eventually helped Jenni shed her insecurities.

"We really pushed Jenni to go beyond what she thought she could do," explained Heather. "Building her self-confidence helped Jenni open up and start trusting again." 

With encouragement from the Butlers and the other girls who lived in her Family Home, Jenni got active in campus life. She joined the soccer team and cheer squad, and ran cross country. She buckled down in the classroom, garnering academic awards and becoming a member of the National Honor Society. Her positive attitude and work ethic also earned Jenni Boys Town's "Competing with Character" award, given annually to a student-athlete who exemplifies good character both on and off the playing field.  

Jenni credits her success to all the positive adults and peers who pushed her to try her best and never give up. She says the lessons learned at Boys Town helped her emotionally rebuild her family relationships, too.  

"Now my sister and brother look up to me. I talk to them about staying in school and away from bad influences," she said.

No longer burdened or haunted by the past, Jenni's excited for the future. She was awarded a full-ride, two-year scholarship to a community college, and plans to pursue a criminal justice degree with hopes of joining the FBI.  

"It feels great to know that if you put your heart and mind into something, it can be achieved," Jenni said.​​

This article is written by Kelly Connolly. It was posted on wo​wt.com on September 12, 2016.

Friday nights are a little different at Boys Town, having to build a different team every year.

"Our kids come from all over the country and our average stay is 18 months for our young men,"said head football coach Kevin Kush. The athletes arrive during the summer and are expected to play in the fall. "Football's a great opportunity to do things right and that's what we use football for, to build a better young man."

Not only does the coach sharpen their football skills, he teaches the things that really matter. "I've learned a lot from this team, compete with character, ​fighting for each other," said junior Tijaih Davis. "It's a family thing."

There is a special meaning when student athletes put on that Cowboy jersey. "I've only played last year with Boys Town and just in that one year I've gained a lot of relationships with the coaches and teammates and it's just a great experience overall," said senior Cameron Christoffensen.

"We have low tolerances and high expectations in our program," said coach Kush. With a winning record and being state runner-ups in 2008, what they're doing at Boys Town is working.​

Education is one of the most effective agents to ​transform lives and instill promise, motivation and hope. This is why Boys Town New York seeks to immerse our youth in programs and opportunities that help highlight how far a commitment to school - and themselves - can take them, as four special boys recently discovered on a trip to Washington DC.

For Boys Town New York youth, the trip was a rare chance to leave the confines of New York City. On their campus tour of storied Howard University, the experience was a chance for the boys to envision life as a college student and see the power of education as a means to better oneself. Boys Town youth, Henry, said he could picture himself at Howard University in a couple of years following the tour, while another youth, Andrew, began contemplating pledging an academic fraternity. More than just a vow, Boys Town sees these proclamations as obligations towards a better life and a personal promise that they will be the ones to break a cycle of poverty and displacement.

To further support these dreams, please consider making a donation to Bo​ys Town New York today!

How does a 12-year-old cope as he struggles with his father’s substance abuse issues and his parents’ separation?

He argues with his parents, challenging their authority. Over time, he escalates his negative behavior, acting out, using alcohol and drugs, and ​getting into brushes with the law. And school becomes a major source of frustration because he’s failing and not learning.

That was Sloane Baxter’s life as he began the steady descent that would ultimately land him in a youth prison.

At 14, Sloane was arrested for attempting to steal a car. He was placed on probation, but repeated probation violations led to his incarceration at Oak Hill Youth Center.

“Oak Hill was a youth prison,” said Lisette Burton, J.D., Director of National Advocacy at Boys Town Washington DC. “It was an awful place with barbed wire; it looked and functioned like a prison for adults. It has since been shut down.”

Sloane spent several months at the center before his caseworker contacted Boys Town Washington DC about a possible placement in the site’s Family H​ome Program. After Boys Town staff visited with Sloane, everyone agreed it would be a good fit.

“Sloane is a very engaging young man,” Burton said. “He adapted quickly to the structure, skill teaching and family-style environment of the program.”

Besides providing a safe, nurturing home for the teen, Sloane’s Family-Teachers^® worked with his caseworker, family members and others to place him in a school that better addressed his educational needs.

“This was a very big deal for him because he had not previously experienced any school success,” Burton said. “Once he was in the right environment, he began to thrive in school.”

Sloane also began to develop and pursue other interests that proved beneficial.

“The boys in his Family Home participated in a summer project called ‘Book in Day,’” Burton said. “This taught them the fundamentals of poetry, how to write poems and basic publishing. They created a book of poetry titled ‘Concrete Dreams’ and published it. Having these kinds of experiences, in addition to learning new skills and building relationships at home and in school, helped propel him forward.”

Sloane was 17 when he left Boys Town and moved home, which had greatly improved during his stay. He graduated from high school and later got an apartment of his own. He continued working at Starbucks – a job he started as an afterschool employee while at Boys Town – and eventually earned a promotion to a supervisor position.

“To this day, Sloane still keeps in touch with his Family-Teachers,” Burton said. “He’s on a great path. The big difference for Sloane is he now utilizes the resources around him, and he has well-developed problem-solving and communication skills. He also has a great relationship with both of his parents today.”

Sloane’s life experiences also have made him an ideal advocate for at-risk children.

In October 2015, Boys Town was advocating for a federal juvenile justice bill with the Chairman of the House Committee on Workforce and Education, Congressman John Kline.

“Chairman Kline previously visited Boys Town in Nebraska, and his staff knew young people from Boys Town had given valuable testimony before. They requested a Boys Town youth to speak at a hearing on juvenile justice,” Burton said. “We asked Sloane if he would be willing and he readily agreed. He was still young enough for his experiences to be fresh and relevant but also older and mature enough to be able to independently determine what he wanted to share and how.”

Burton helped Sloane, then 22, shape his story and experiences into his formal testimony to Congress.

During the hearing, Sloane spoke alongside a judge, a vice president of a large nonprofit organization and a leader who advocates for justice reforms. Sloane was asked pointed questions about his experiences and his opinions on juvenile justice issues.

“Sloane’s testimony was fantastic,” Burton said. “He was actually highlighted in Chairman Kline’s comments after the hearing because it was so impactful. Sloane’s testimony about being incarcerated as a young person and then thriving in a family-style, community-based program like Boys Town’s Family Homes had a big impact on the committee – and that impact is ongoing.”

In May 2016, Chairman Kline and his staff, along with ranking-member Congressman Bobby Scott, contacted Boys Town Washington DC to arrange a visit to a Family Home so they could learn more about the residential program and see it in action.

In addition, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan recently published a Republican Party policy brief called “A Better Way.” One of the policy’s major initiatives is to lift young people out of poverty and onto the ladder of opportunity.

“In this policy agenda, Sloane’s name and story are highlighted as an example of a young person who participated in the right kind of program that led to long-lasting success,” Burton said. “Also, there is a quote from Sloane where he talks about the fact that things could have gone a lot of different if it wasn’t for a place like Boys Town, and that it still serves as a lifeline for him when he needs it.”

Today, Sloane continues his work as an advocate for Boys Town and at-risk children.

“There is an upcoming youth justice symposium that Sloane wants to attend,” Burton said. “He is a great example of someone who benefited from residential care. And because of that, he wants to give back and continue to help those in similar situations.”

This article is written by Roger Buddenberg. It was posted September 1, 2016 on catholic​voiceomaha.com.

Mother Teresa, the nun about to be declared a saint in honor of her humility and fearless devotion to the poor, left several other positive impressions when she visited Omaha in 1976.

"We had a lot of laughs. … She had a good sense of humor," said Bill Ramsey, a retired spokesman for Boys Town, one of the sites Mother Teresa visited during her two-day stop.

Now 86, Ramsey then was a nervous chauffeur, the person appointed to make sure the tiny Indian nun arrived at her stops on time. She repeatedly tried to put him at ease.

"Bill, don’t worry about that," she told him again and again as he fretted that the streams of people she stopped to talk with were trashing the schedule.

"She moved very slowly because she talked to everyone," he said.

"I was worried about getting her back to the airport on time" for her flight out, he said. "She didn’t have a real sense of timing" and paid no attention to the clock.

Mother Teresa spent about 40 hours in Omaha that May, touring Boys Town and accepting the Father Flanagan Award for Service to Youth, visiting two groups of cloistered nuns, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the Poor Sisters of St. Clare, and speaking to a downtown luncheon crowd.

She stayed overnight at the Poor Clares’ monastery, then located near 29th and Hamilton streets. The abbess at the time, Sister Mary Clare, said Mother Teresa struck her, too, as a down-to-earth person.

"We had a chair re-upholstered" for the occasion, in gold fabric, "a nice chair for her to sit on," said the former abbess, now 87. "But she took me by the arm and had me sit in the chair."

While chatting with her fellow nuns after morning Mass, "about where her sisters were and a little about her life," Mother Teresa abstractedly stirred sugar into a glass of water instead of her coffee, said Sister Mary Clare. But, the former abbess said, when the other nuns tried to clear the mistake from the table, Mother Teresa insisted the glass remain. She simply drank the sweetened water instead of coffee.

At Boys Town, the visitor from India "was amazed by the village," how it was organized, said Tom Lynch, who oversees the home’s Hall of History museum.

Mother Teresa, he said, toured building after building, even the basements, and helped break ground on a new research center, now the home’s lakeside headquarters building.

"It was very inspirational to the kids. … She was a role model," he said. "She dealt with people nobody wanted, like Father Flanagan did, the people society had given up on and ignored." (The cause for sainthood for the Boys Town founder is under study now at the Vatican.)

Mother Teresa arrived in Omaha May 5, and the next day spoke to about 500 people at the downtown Hilton, accepting the award from Boys Town and telling the crowd:

"The boys do not need pity but love and compassion. Give your hands to serve them and your hearts to love them."

After the luncheon, Ramsey was fretting about getting his guest to the airport on time – and she once again threw a delay into the timetable by asking a favor:

Could she have the candles from the Hilton’s tables? She would like to take them back to her home for the poor in India, she explained.

But they are half burned, Ramsey said.

"Yes, but they are half good," she replied.

The candles were gathered and put into sacks supplied by the hotel. The plane didn’t leave without her.

"She must’ve known something I didn’t know," Ramsey said.

This article was published on tallahassee.com on August 30, 2016.

More than 20 local Lowe’s employees recently traded in their days off for a week of hard work under a scorching sun, all to benefit the children of Boys Town North Florida.

The community service effort came after the two Tallahassee Lowe’s stores chose Boys Town’s ART Town as its annual Lowe’s Heroes program project. The employees hung new cabinets, built a gravel pathway and installed several pieces of playground equipment, all with materials donated by Lowe’s.

With big smiles and open hearts, the ​volunteers helped Boys Town North Florida check off several needed items from its ART Town playground “wish list” and create a place where children in the site’s care could happily blow off steam, romp around and just be kids.

Since 1983, Boys Town North Florida has been serving local children who are most at risk due to behavioral and emotional problems. In 2015 alone, the site provided direct care for 801 children through its five programs. ART Town, the site’s newest program, opened in January as a retreat where children and families receiving Boys Town services can focus on restoring their spirits and healing their souls. ART Town provides mentoring and tutoring, therapy, family visitations, art lessons and a variety of other activities.

'I chose to come here for a reason'

This article is written by Josh Planos. It was published August 22, 2016 on ketv.com.

Teddy Allen wanted to know where the cameras were and why they weren't rolling.

Not in a bellicose way, mind you, nor even with a hint of irritation; he was just curious, perhaps a tad perplexed.

This isn’t uncommon: As a reporter for a local TV station, someone who doesn’t appear on air, working in an industry that doubles as a sea of often recognizable faces, the act of interviewing someone is altered fairly significantly. See, there sat a much-talked-about high school athlete, who spent the summer garnering scholarship offers for his craft at about the same pace he poured in buckets, dressed to the nines; on a breezy mid-August Wednesday, he donned a pastel-purple collared shirt and khaki slacks. Maybe he even woke up early for this obligation -- yet another interview with yet another journalist for a player getting increasingly comfortable with both. He sat next to his head coach, Tom Krehbiel, who was draped in business casual. They were flanked by two bright-eyed school representatives, dressed nice enough to get into any restaurant in the city.

I wore shorts and a light-blue short-sleeved shirt.

They were expecting cameras -- and there wasn't a single red light blinking back at any of them.

I stumbled over a repeated mumbling apology; clearly something was lost in translation.

People -- collegiate athletic departments, coaches, players, fans -- want to hear from the pride of Boys Town, which is what brought me to him.

But Allen, though, one of, if not the top basketball player on the Nebraska high school circuit, won't have to wait much longer for cameras. He might do well to savor the time not having to address them, not having to worry about them covering and dissecting his every move, because that clock is rapidly winding down.

****

Like many who flourish within its framework and structure, Allen was firm when he declared he's no longer the same person who first came to Boys Town. Gone is the boy who arrived in Omaha, nearly 1,400 miles from home. "As a person," he said, "I'm not the same as I was. I wasn't a bad kid; I just didn't have as open a mind to things that I do now."
What's changed, I asked.

"For me as a person, probably just calmer, smarter, more mature."

He understands the outside perception of his new home: Boys Town, a sanctuary for the at-risk, the neglected, those in need of help in some degree.

"Boys Town isn’t a place for bad people," he whispered with a genuine, spirit-lifting smile, nearly quoting Father Flanagan verbatim. "It’s a place for people who just want opportunities and an environment where they can thrive.

"It’s not what people think it is."

What "people think it is" varies, but high school athletics seldom bring out the politically correct -- or even accurate -- descriptors of a place where staff members work diligently, exhaustively, every single day, to save another generation of youths.

"I’ve heard everything, like from student sections, from people around the country. Like, ‘You’re a bad kid. What’d you do?’ Like, it’s nothing like that. I’ve not met a bad kid since I got here."

He speaks like a living, breathing made-for-TV commercial, which makes sense considering he's been nothing short of A Success Story since he arrived in mid-August of 2015.

"If you're trying to grow as a person and set yourself up for success, this is a really great place to come," he said. "I chose to come here for a reason."

When he was a freshman at Desert Ridge High School in Arizona, Teddy dunked for the first time during a water break.

"I had no bounce freshman year," he said, laughing, "but I was tall so I was on varsity."

His teammates made fun of him for not being able to sky over the rim. So one day he soared while his friends rested.

"Couldn't dunk for like two months after that, but I dunked that one time," he said.

Teddy became a standout player almost overnight, becoming the team's second-leading scorer while netting better than 50 percent of his looks from beyond the arc. His sophomore year, he earned honorable mention All-State while scoring better than 18 points and grabbing better than six rebounds per contest.

However, grade troubles were frequent, he told Husker Online's Robin Washut, and led to his father, a Nebraska native, recommending a move.

As far as basketball aspirations were concerned, the move was nonsensical on paper; players like Richard Jefferson, Mike Bibby and Channing Frye cut their teeth in Arizona high school gyms. But Nebraska? Four players ever who attended Nebraska high schools played more than six years in the league. Those numbers are even slimmer at Boys Town.

As Allen put it: "You don’t see athletes coming through here."

After not being allowed to play through Christmas, he made his debut in January against Scotus Central Catholic, the state runner-up the year prior. Allen had 32 points for a Boys Town club that was 3-4 at the time. Scotus went on to win the state title.

Less than two months later, Larry McBryde, an 18-year-old senior from Erwin, North Carolina, and a starting guard on the team, died from cardiac dysrhythmia associated with cardiac fibrosis. He was found dead on the floor of his private room. Larry had enough credits to graduate, so Krehbiel framed his jersey and sent it home to his family along with his diploma. The school still hasn't fully processed the incident, and plans to honor him again this season.

One day later, the team was to play Wahoo in the C1-5 subdistrict semifinals.

With heavy hearts, tear-stained cheeks and little sleep, Krehbiel rallied his team.

"The last thing I asked our team before we left for the game was just to stay in the moment, make the game important,’’ Krehbiel told the Omaha World-Herald. “It was OK to make this game important and then come back to grieving later."

Allen, one of McBryde’s closest friends on the team, donned a black long-sleeved T-shirt that read, “R.I.P. Big Brother."

Then he dropped 31 points on Wahoo, snapped their 12-game winning streak and ended their season.

****

Sitting in a conference room tucked inside the Skip Palrang Memorial Fieldhouse, a wry smile draped across Teddy's face when I mentioned one of his final, major high school hurdles: the ACT.

"That's a long test," he said. "It's a grind."

A tutor is helping him with math -- "It's not my easiest subject," he admitted -- ahead of the standardized test, which is scheduled for Sept. 10.

He's asking around -- for tips, motivation, advice, anything, really.

"I'll be prepared for it," he confidently said. "Just prepare and pray about it."

A good-enough score on the test could lead to more Division 1 offers, something Allen isn't short on but wouldn't mind seeing more of. Before moving on, he stretched his back and leaned back in his folding chair.

"I want to only take it one time."

****

When the season ended, Allen didn't wait long to pick up a basketball. After some conversations with Krehbiel, he decided to try out for the Omaha Sports Academy Crusaders. For some, that's when the show really started: on the AAU circuit.

Over the course of a few days in Las Vegas, Allen, who was only sitting on a few offers at the time, received scholarship offers from Iowa State, George Mason, Virginia Tech and DePaul almost instantaneously. He poured in 30-point performances, tallied up double-doubles and made scouts pay attention.

"Those guys are cool," he said of his teammates. "I didn’t really know any of them going into the season, but we grew real close over those nine, 10 tournaments we played or whatever. A great organization. Best in Nebraska.”

"We hand-picked the Crusaders and that coach, just for a lot of different reasons," Krehbiel said. "Nothing bad towards anybody else. We were very pleased with how that all turned out. They played in tournaments that allowed him to be seen and then he took full advantage of all that. He had a great experience. He was coached well, whether he likes it or not all the time (laughs)."

During the summer, Teddy put a ball off the glass and dunked it himself off the rebound -- a self-thrown alley-oop, a move mostly reserved for dunk contests and video games. His coach pulled him immediately.

Asked what he'd do with a breakaway this season, he smiled. "I'll put it off the glass. We'll see if he gives me some leniency on that."

Entering this season, he's sitting on around a dozen offers, from bigger programs like Cincinnati, West Virginia and Texas Christian, and smaller ones like South Dakota State and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Creighton and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are reportedly quite interested in the burgeoning stud.

"He’s considered seven," Krehbiel said of Teddy's offers. "Now, there’s more, but there’s some that are going to be turned down. There’s six or seven out there that he’s weighing.”
Worth noting: Allen's brother, Timmy Allen, who attends Desert Ridge, is a talented prospect, too. The brothers are only one year apart, and Timmy holds offers from Creighton, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Arizona State, and a few others. The one offer they have in common? DePaul.

Would they consider going to the same spot?

"It’s easily a possibility," Teddy said. "It’s something we talk about. We both aren’t like prioritizing our recruitment on that, but it’s a topic of discussion."

Fit is everything, and Teddy acknowledged that since it's a basketball scholarship being mulled over, he has a basketball decision to make.

"I just look at it like, where am I going to fit best? What's going to set me up best to maximize my potential in college so I can play at that next level?"

****

Teddy is quite tall in person.

He grew up being the tallest player on almost every court he stepped on and, at 6-foot-6, he remains one of the taller players in Class C-1 basketball.

He grew up in the post, a bruiser who could corral rebounds and find opportunities on the glass.

"Growing up, like, up until fourth grade as a post has literally shaped my game," he said. "Like, all these coaches I’m talking to, they really like the versatility in my game. And being able to do that just stems from how my coaches played me when I was young."

But he isn't about to walk into a college gym and helm the low block; he'll be a wing, albeit one with more refined back-to-the-basket moves and an impressive rebounding prowess.

"He’s learning to be more of a play-maker," Krehbiel said. "How to incorporate other people into his game. He was clearly very good with the ball in his hand last year and could really score when he wanted to. Now, when teams run two and three people at him, he’s learning how to be a play-maker, how to share the ball, what’s the right play.

"The thing he needs to work on and continue to work on is to move without the ball, play the game in other areas without the basketball in his hand, and he’s learning how to do that."

Asked who his game mirrors in the NBA, Teddy immediately mentioned Carmelo Anthony, the 6-foot-8, nine-time NBA all-star currently playing for the New York Knicks. "Score any type of way," he said. His favorite player has long been LeBron James. "I'm not going to say LeBron," he said when asked about his NBA composite, "because that's the G.O.A.T. I wouldn't disrespect him like that."

While his highlight reel is littered with splices of him attacking the rim, his ball-handling and defense will be refined over the upcoming season. After earning first-team All-State, while averaging better than 26 points and 12 rebounds per contest a season ago, one would expect Teddy to become complacent, or at least acknowledge the ceiling of potential improvement is considerably smaller than others. That's not his style.

"There's a lot of room for improvement," he said. "I would expect to blow those numbers out of the water."

"He's fun to be around," Krehbiel said when asked what the Omaha community should know about arguably the city's top basketball talent. "Fun to coach. I think the sky’s the limit.

"You know, he asked me a couple weeks ago when he got back, he said do I think he can play in the NBA? And he’s always on that, ‘I’m going to play in the NBA, coach. I’m going to play.’ Yeah, yeah. Well I told him that how far he’s come in a year should show us all that he can accomplish anything that he wants to. He’s done all this work -- some of it basketball, but a majority of it in the classroom, just in his personality and behavior, to set himself up to where it is a possibility to go make a living doing this game and something that he loves. That needs to be respected."

Teddy, it appears, is ready to take flight.