Not Your High School Cafeteria
By John Weiss and Lesa Huget

Not Your High School Cafeteria offers a history, anecdotes, and lessons learned about Neutral Zone and its nationally recognized “youth-driven spaces” approach. This book is written by John Weiss, Neutral Zone’s current Director of Strategic Initiatives (and its Executive Director for 9 years) and long-time volunteer Lesa Huget, who served on Neutral Zone’s Board of Directors for several years. Rich with examples of how the Neutral Zone was built and operates, the book includes specific ideas for other organizations and schools to help them provide meaningful voice, choice and involvement to their youth/students.

Because all Neutral Zone projects are teen led, endorsed or influenced – the publication of this book is a collaboration with Neutral Zone’s youth-led publishing company, Red Beard Press. 

Neutral Zone
The Neutral Zone is a diverse, youth-driven teen center dedicated to promoting personal growth through artistic expression, community leadership and the exchange of ideas. Founded in 1998, the Neutral Zone started with a group of Ann Arbor teens who gathered to discuss the need for a place where teens could congregate after school and on weekends. From the very beginning, they felt this place should be more than just a hangout; that is could be a safe place to make new friends, mix with youth from different backgrounds, explore new ideas, learn new skills and do it all in a setting that was teen friendly and teen driven. Teens wrote the mission statement and the first grant proposal to the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation and, with seed money in hand, enlisted parents and friends to turn an old brick and timber warehouse into a teen center.It’s been years since that original group of teens realized their dream and they have moved on with their lives.   Their legacy lives on, however, in the Neutral Zone’s mission statement.  From that first handful of teens, attendance has grown to more than 16,000 visits a year.  Today, in addition to drop-in and free tutoring after school, the Neutral Zone offers more than 20 programs in the areas of Education, Literary Arts, Community Leadership, Music and the Visual Arts.  However, the Neutral Zone is just not a place.  It is the sum total of all of the teens who come through its doors.  Their energy, creativity, passion and ideas, shape and direct our programs and activities.
​It is considered the premiere youth development programs for older youth in the country. In 2009, Neutral Zone was recognized with the Afterschool Innovator Award and in 2007 was featured in The Nation as providing one of the best youth leadership programs in the country. In 2010, the Kellogg Foundation awarded Neutral Zone and its collaborating partners a grant to share its unique, youth-driven approach with other teen programs throughout the state.

John Weiss
John Weiss has served as the Executive Director of the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s Teen Center, for the past eight years. John has been working with diverse populations of youth and youth serving programs for over twenty five years. He served as a teacher in the Ypsilanti Schools and as the Middle School Reform Facilitator for Willow Run Community Schools. John served for seven years as the Director of the Adolescent Division of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti. He also worked as a teacher in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa.
John has lived in Ypsilanti for the past 18 years with his wife Sarah and three children – Myles, Nya, and Jerzy. He is an avid cook, home brewer, kettle beller and runner.

Lesa Huget
Lesa Huget is a former investigative reporter whose award-winning work appeared in dozens of newspapers and publications, including the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News, Crain’s Detroit Business, Advertising Age, and Corporate Detroit magazine.  For the past two decades she has worked as a freelance writing coach and as a speechwriter for The Ford Motor Company executive team.
​A self-proclaimed “serial volunteer,” Lesa has served on numerous non-profit Boards, including the Neutral Zone, Junior League of Ann Arbor, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Burns Park Players, and Pioneer High School Theater Guild. She has a special affinity for organizations that create opportunities for young people to experience the literary, visual, and performing arts. She remains an active volunteer at Neutral Zone, which was a second home to her daughters Hailey and Hannah during their high school years. 
Lesa lives in Ann Arbor with her husband Mike and their dogs, Libby and Buddy.