Student joins campaign to prevent teen pregnancies

Viewpoint School senior Sam Weidman of Hidden Hills was selected as a member of the 2007-08 Youth Leadership Team sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Weidman will travel to Washington, D.C., with the 15member team to be trained as a spokesperson for the campaign. During the 18-month term, team members will take part in activities that promote the prevention of teen pregnancy and expand the members' leadership abilities.

In the past, team members worked with television and film producers to include messages about preventing teen pregnancy in relevant scripts.

"This is a great opportunity to contribute to solving a problem that needs to be addressed," Weidman said. "My goal is to help raise awareness about teen pregnancy throughout pop culture and to improve programs that help teen mothers."

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative that promotes values, behavior and policies that reduce unplanned pregnancies among teens and young adults.

The campaign's goal is to reduce the teen pregnancy rate by one-third by 2015.