ShawneeDispatch.com

When her friends at school wanted to drink, Hannah Jennison found the strength to tell them, "No."

The 17-year-old Shawnee Mission Northwest High School student from Lenexa said she doesn't remember much about her 15th birthday. She said most of her friends at the time gave her alcoholic drinks as gifts. She came home that night and met her mother in the kitchen.

"I didn't even know," said Jenna Jennison. "She came in with a paper bag of gifts and showed me a card, but I had no idea she was drunk."

That was when Hannah decided to turn her life around. After a year of partying with her friends, she decided to stop drinking.

She wrote an essay about her experience that won the 2006 "Prom-ise to be Drug Free" contest from the Johnson County STOP Underage Drinking Project. The essay contest, open to all juniors and seniors in Johnson County, awards an all-expense paid prom in gift certificates.

For her essay, Hannah won a $150 gift certificate to Oak Park Mall for a prom dress, a free boutonniÃre, a $100 gift certificate for dinner at the Country Club Plaza, a $50 gift certificate to Beauty Brands for her hair and makeup, picture frames and several other gifts. She and her date and several of her friends are planning to have a great time at prom and Northwest's after-prom this year.

Although Hannah's choice may not make her popular with some Northwest students, it doesn't seem to bother her.

"I'm not a very 'cool' kid," she said.

Hannah is keenly aware that she shows maturity beyond her years. She shares a respectful relationship with her parents and grandparents and concern for her younger siblings. Hannah decided last summer that she would graduate one year early. She took summer school, night school and weekend classes to earn her extra credits to graduate while taking her junior classes. She's maintained a 3.87 grade-point average and has been a proud member of the yearbook staff.

"We're third in the nation this year," she said.

School and maintaining good grades has taken up most of Hannah's life recently. She hasn't had as much time for things she was once involved in, such as piano or the youth group at her B'nai Jehudah Temple. She's an avid reader but has focused on her goal of getting into college early. Her plans are to go to Johnson County Community College next year, then transfer to the University of Kansas and pursue a degree in magazine journalism.

"I don't want to go to a big college when I'm only 17," she said.

Hannah is excited about going to college and being among her real peers, college students who don't mind her choice not to drink, unlike some high school students.

She also plans to live at home for awhile, which will give her the chance to spend more time with her grandparents who recently moved in with the family and watch over her two younger siblings. She knows how easy it is for her brother, a 14-year-old Trailridge Middle School student, to obtain alcohol.

"You can pretty much get anything in Johnson County if you're willing to pay for it," she said.

Hannah said her experimenting with alcohol began when she was 14 with some friends. She said it was partly peer pressure and partly her own personal struggles that led her to continue drinking for a year. Hannah's parents warn how easy it is for teens to gain access to alcohol.

"I thought I would be able to tell, but I couldn't," Jenna Jennison said. "When we found out about it, we were very concerned. We just tried to be open about it. You can be too restrictive or too loose as parent and have no boundaries. You have to find a happy medium on what works for each child."

She said that for Hannah, what worked was having open and honest conversation and listening to her daughter.

Hannah knows the benefits of choosing not to drink have already outweighed the negatives. She remembered a friend Clarissa Bergman, another Northwest student who died in a drug and alcohol-related accident in January. Many of her former friends have been in trouble with the law for drug and alcohol-related incidents. Today, Hannah has been alcohol-free for almost two years. This weekend, she looks forward to making her first and only prom special by refusing to drink.