Graduate Lenz has Life in Focus Helping Underserved Populations
By Richard Burnett
When his boss asked Jack Lenz to lead a new initiative in late 2023, he wasted no time. With his typical gusto, the community services worker embraced the goal: To create a food pantry for former foster children living in an apartment complex after aging out of the system. A month later, Lenz had lined up the resources and logistics to open the new site featuring fresh fruit and vegetables and other foods. It would support the nutritional needs of a highly at-risk population, many of whom often end up on the street after they leave their foster homes.
“There were a lot of needs there,” said Lenz, a grant writer and program developer for the West End Community Center, a nonprofit in Providence, Rhode Island. “So, I put together some surveys and identified what foods would be most beneficial for young people. We set it up right in their residence, which helped address their transportation barriers, as well as nutrition needs.”
Later, Lenz received the Adopt Hope Award from Adoption RI — a statewide advocacy group and West End’s partner in sponsoring the food pantry. Adoption RI manages the apartment complex for former foster children, ages 16-24.
“It meant a lot to me to receive that award,” he said. “From my initial entry into human services work until now, it’s always been important to me to help young people in need.”
For Lenz, now 34, that motivation to help at-risk young people — and underserved people in general — was cultivated at Beacon. He arrived on campus in 2012, frustrated by his struggles in school and often angry at the educational system’s inability to help him. As a child, he was diagnosed with a condition that slowed his mental processing speed, which flummoxed teachers and disrupted his education.
Image: Alum Jack Lenz at Health Equity Zone event with Olivia Martinez, director of social services, for West End Community Center.
Amid the struggles, his mother — a champion for him through it all — knew he was highly intelligent and was convinced he could reach his potential at the right place. She was the one who found Beacon for him, according to Lenz. “My mom was a great advocate for me,” he said. “She believed in me and in Beacon.”
That faith would be tested in his first semester, however, when he found himself rebelling and questioning nearly everything, including himself, Lenz recalled. After that rough start, everything began to change in the second semester, like a light switch flipping on.
“Beacon gave me a lot of positive support after that first semester,” he said. “Then I started taking some really interesting classes, I was more confident, and I surprised myself. I had never gotten good grades before, but then I finally broke through. I improved my self-image; all my teachers believed in me, and I just took things much more seriously.”
Lenz graduated cum laude with honors in 2016, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and human services.
He found his academic, emotional, and spiritual inspiration in the human services field, according to Maria Marcano-Ramirez, a Beacon learning specialist, who worked with Lenz during his college career. From research papers and projects to internships, he was always focused on ways to help at-risk young people, homeless people, and other needy populations, she said.
“It was great to see him grow through the years,” Marcano-Ramirez said. “He had at passion for others in need. And he brought that to the forefront in every single project he did. Recently, when he reached out to me and mentioned all that he’s accomplished now, I knew it was exactly what he was working toward when he was here. It was his dream.”
Lenz continues to pursue his dreams. Currently, he’s taking a year-long training course in executive leadership, hoping to one day advance into nonprofit management. He also is doing some public speaking, hoping to have a steady side gig in the future.
“At this point, it may seem hard to fathom, but as I get better at it, I hope one day to do TED talks and other events,” he said. “Recently, I was called on to testify in the Rhode Island legislature state house, supporting a bill called the Food Donation Tax Credit. It’s an incentive for restaurants to donate food to needy folks, rather than just throw it into a landfill. I was wicked nervous about testifying like that, but it turned out much better than I thought. It gave me the feeling that, yeah, I could really do this.”