Youth Officers
Jayla George
President
Jayla is a 17 year old Senior and a member of the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Program at Manalapan High School. During her Sophomore year, she was promoted to Sergeant of her Magnet program, under the wing of the Lieutenants and Captains, all of which are student leaders of the program, and Lieutenant Junior and Senior year. Jayla is an astute, open-minded, and well driven honor student. She has also been involved in many discussions that hold a lot of value to her high school such as the Equity Dialogue Conference and contributed to key discussions with the school board to improve the experience of students. Aside from the school board, last year she spoke with the district board of education in an effort to honor the state and federal holiday, Juneteenth.
Also being a part of the student council, she participated in many community service projects and activities to boost student morale. She is also the Secretary of the Minority Initiative Club and the Vice President of the Student Student Government at her school. She is a member of the Lead for Diversity program, and was chosen to Intern at the Monmouth County Courthouse. She participated in the Black Girls Rock Conference, YesSheCan Campaign Summit, YEA Camp, which is a social justice camp, had numerous meetings with the Ocean County Prosecutor, and also worked on the Rays of Hope planning committee. She is excited about her 7th year in Rays of Hope, and honored for the opportunity to serve as President once again.
Tyler Douglas
Vice President
Tyler is a 17 year old Senior. She has been a proud member of Rays of Hope for 8 years and has been the Vice President since 2022. She is an activist and loves to spend her free time serving communities in need. Throughout her high school career she has consistently been a high honor roll student. Since her Junior year she has been in the International Baccalaureate Program at Freehold Township High School, a rigorous program recognized internationally that gives opportunities to engage in higher education. Tyler is intelligent, passionate, diligent, and open-minded.
She is very involved in school as she has many leadership positions in various organizations. She founded the Black Student Union at her school to create a safe space for Black students and for others to embrace and learn about Black culture. She is also on the executive board of Lead For Diversity, an organization that targets inclusion; increases awareness; challenges bias, bullying, and oppression for minorities. She also is very active on the Speech and Debate Team as the Treasurer.
She also demonstrates leadership in her community. She is the former President of the teen group of the Jersey Shore Chapter of Jack and Jill of America Inc. Additionally, she is currently working on her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve.
She has participated in the Black Girls Rock conference for two years, At the Well Conference, Lead for Diversity Conference, and YEA Camp. All of these experiences allowed her to practice the leadership skills and passion for advocating for social justice issues that she learned from Rays of Hope.
She plans to become a lawyer to be a champion for people whose voices are silenced.
She is extremely grateful for the support she gets from her community and all the opportunities she gets in her life. Tyler is honored to be serving as Co-Vice President of Rays of Hope.