ReneeLehr

Renee' Lehr is from Bloomington, IL.  She is a current freshman at the University of Iowa, pursuing degrees in English with a Creative Writing emphasis, Communications, Psychology, and certificates in Non-Profit Management and Leadership Studies.

Renee’s passion for service developed from her passion for leadership; throughout high school, Renee was elected Class President, Student Council Vice President, Psychology Club Vice-President, National Honor Society Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, and Clarinet Section Leader. Based on her leadership roles, Renee was selected as Bloomington’s 2009-2010 Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Ambassador and chosen as a HOBY volunteer the following year, earning the Presidential Youth Leadership Award and the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

After her involvement in HOBY, Renee developed and implemented a state-wide service project, “Make a Child Smile”, which connected youth in Illinois with terminally ill youth across the nation through cards, letters, and gifts. The project has been integrated in several high schools across the state, and is currently still active at Illinois State University.
In 2008, Renee joined the streetteam of non-profit organization To Write Love on Her Arms, and began training for an online crisis network in 2010. She is now a certified crisis prevention volunteer, and Team Leader for the IMAlive Online Crisis Network. Upon arrival in Iowa City,

Renee began volunteering for the Crisis Center of Johnson County, and works for the center’s Online Crisis Chat and Crisis Hotline. In the summer of 2011, Renee founded a literary non-profit, “Literary Legacy”, which seeks to promote literacy across the United States by teaching at-risk students the proper skills to read and write, and challenges students to incorporate their skills through publishing. The students are also equipped with the skills to mentor younger students, and together aim to improve basic comprehension and skill sets.

Renee’s other passions include reading, writing, and music. In 2011, she won a young publisher’s contest and published her first book, Drop the Was. She is a feature writer for TeenInk Magazine, and published in several other literary magazines.