Centenary Hosts Teen Summit

If you were on campus on Thursday, March 20, 2025 and saw a massive group of teenagers in purple shirts walking around, you weren’t hallucinating. From 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., 187 students between the ages of 13 to 18 from every high school in Warren County–including Belvidere Middle School–were invited to the Second Annual Teen Summit.

This event was hosted by Jessica Bartelloni, a prevention specialist with the Center for Family Services in Washington, NJ, and Cindy Sizemore from the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Crisis Center (DASACC), who educate teenagers on mental health and substance abuse resources in Warren County. 

These organizations work to educate teens on safe dating, healthy relationships, suicide prevention awareness, and mental health resources, which was the focus of the event. They strive to ensure Warren County teens don’t feel so alone on their mental health journey. 

According to Bartelloni, “peer pressure is a big thing to talk about in all the schools. If you see other kids doing it, a lot of kids will give into some things they don’t want to, so they don’t feel left out and left behind.”

“The most important piece of advice,” said Bartelloni. “is that everybody has the same exact struggles. A lot of people hide them, but everybody has their own struggles in different ways. I always tell kids, don’t keep quiet about what you’re struggling with, because there’s somebody that can help you. There’s somebody that feels the exact same way that you do, and you’re not alone.”

The event began with a presentation from Colin Quinn, a senior at New York University (NYU) and public speaker from Minding Your Mind, a non-profit on educating teenagers about coping with mental health. He shared powerful, yet relatable stories of his own journey with mental health and substance abuse to help students feel understood. 

Organizations from across Warren County tabled on both floors of Lackland from the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide (SPTS) to Northwest Jersey Community Action Partnership (NORWESCAP). 

High school students also attended breakout rooms in Lackland and the Taylor Memorial library. In the President's Circle Room, the Hackettstown Stigma Free Task Force hosted a demonstration called Under Pressure. This father-daughter team taught teenagers the dangers of peer pressure with the Skittles experiment. 

A bowl of Skittles sat at the center of the table and each person in the group was given a slip of paper with their task. One person was instructed not to eat the Skittles, while the rest of the group tried to strongly encourage them to eat some. Most kids ate the Skittles and tried to show how good they were. The individuals who couldn’t eat them just kept denying them and saying they didn’t want to eat them. One adult counselor even went as far as to say she was allergic to Skittles and would go into anaphylactic shock if she ate them. This lie was immediately believed by the rest of the group. 

This experiment was meant to show how easy it could be to give into peer pressure when pressed. The Skittles represented illegal substances teens may be pressured into trying by their friends. 

In the Lackland Board Room, the Nurtured Heart and Greatness Project presented “Gratitude is Attitude,” which focused on positive interactions and the advantage of happiness by showing a TED Talk by Shawn Achor, CEO of Good Think, Inc. He discussed thinking positively, making up excuses to get you out of trouble, and finding the humor in what you did. Achor encouraged the audience to take a bad day or moment and find positivity.

In the library, several events were hosted. In the Quiet Area, the Firth Youth Center taught kids about leadership with a drawing activity. The students figured out how the words they used to delegate tasks impacted the end result. 

In the library’s west wing, Rose Discipio and David Nicholson, athletic trainers at St. Luke’s, had a presentation on Social Media and Perception. Working with high schoolers, they discovered issues that needed to be addressed and were thrilled to upgrade from a table to a breakout room this year. 

In the library’s children’s section, Warren County Department of Human Services asked students to put up post-its with ways they manage stress, depression, and anxiety and who they can look to for support. Afterwards, the dangers of drugs and alcohol were discussed. Then, the group held hands to demonstrate the impact of a vast support system. 

“Silence literally kills,” said Laura Richter, associate director for Warren County Department of Human Services. “Don't let anybody hold you back. Push forward and be that support system.”

“The event was really good and I really liked how we learned about teen mental health. I'd really like to go again,” said Jenna Conklin, eighth grader at Belvidere Middle School. 

Tables Featured:

Atlantic Health- Teen Health (Anonymous slips of paper with topics to include)

Catholic Charities 

Center for Family Services

Contextual Family Services 

Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Crisis Center (DASACC)

Family Promise of Warren County 

H-Hope Health Outreach Prevention Education 

Northwest Jersey Community Action Partnership (NORWESCAP)

Operation Helping Hand

Parent to Parent Addiction Services 

Phillipsburg Joseph H. Firth Youth Community Center (Learn, Educate, Advocate, Develop (Lead) Drug Free Community Coalition)

Project Self- Sufficiency 

Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide (SPTS)

Tri-County Care Management Organization 

Warren County Department of Humanities

Warren County Health Department

Warren County Health Department: Special Child Health Services

Zufall Health

If you know of a local teen that could benefit from information on mental health and substance abuse resources, contact Bartelloni at jessica.bartelloni@centerffs.org or keep an eye out for the next event on the Warren Regional Coalition’s Instagram or Facebook pages.