YoungAndWiser, Inc. is a non-profit corporation offering information to students about the challenges they will face through late adolescence and early adulthood. Educators are trained and sent to college campuses and high schools to do presentations and consulting on topics including alcohol and drug use, healthy relationships and sexuality, college readiness, coping skills and more.
The organization was founded in 2012 by Tom Bissonette, who served as a college counselor for 20 years and teaches classes at UTC on adolescent and young adult development.
The idea of YoungAndWiser, Inc. is described on their website:
“The underlying concept is simple - yet profound. Most, if not all adolescents and young adults experience developmental delays in one or more areas. The purpose of this organization is to help them catch up to themselves and their peers through life education.”
For example, academic delays might trigger a temptation to cheat; or those with social delays might use alcohol as an artificial confidence builder. These pressures and others like them lead to poor decisions, officials said.
YoungAndWiser programs help students understand what’s happening to them so they are less likely to make unwise decisions that can have life-long consequences. The director of the program says, “We sometimes think of ourselves as wisdom accelerators.”
The organization is holding a fundraiser at UTC in the UC Auditorium on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. The event includes the music of Smooth Dialect and the comedy of the nationally popular college humorist, Steve Hofstetter. Information about the event and tickets can be found at http://youngandwiser.org.