Riverside Educator and Nonprofit Founder Lorna Jenkins Receives 2025 Spirit Award

The City Council voted 6-1 on May 19 to award Lorna Jenkins the city's 2025 Spirit Award, recognizing her work as founder of My Learning Studio OUTREACH, a nonprofit that has provided more than 13,000 hours of free and reduced-cost tutoring to low-income, foster, and at-risk children since 2008.

The Spirit Award is reserved for community members who demonstrate extraordinary dedication and commitment to improving quality of life in Riverside. Past recipients include Retired Senator Richard Roth, Rose Mayes, and Gordon Bourns.

Jenkins, whom the Gazette profiled as a Neighbor of the Week in February 2025, founded My Learning Studio OUTREACH as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, offering free and fee-reduced one-on-one academic help to children facing financial hardship, those in the foster system, and court-appointed youth such as grandparents raising grandchildren and siblings raising siblings. The program serves students across all academic subjects and also addresses self-esteem and organizational skills.

"Receiving this award enhances our commitment to educating students who are struggling academically," Jenkins told the Gazette. "I would hope that more families would reach out to us for help. We have a dedicated, caring staff and volunteers who love helping students of all ages."

Her nonprofit work runs alongside a separate for-profit tutoring center, My Learning Studio, which offers private instruction for students and adults at a Woodcrest location on Van Buren Boulevard.

Beyond the classroom, Jenkins has shaped Riverside's civic culture for more than a decade. She hosted the city's largest National Night Out event for nine consecutive years, led free walking tours of Riverside's landmarks and government buildings through her Explore Riverside Together program, and authored a book about the city by the same name.

Jenkins said her commitment to Riverside comes from a deep affection for its character. "My husband and I love Riverside and its small-town feel, and we like to get residents involved and grow their own passion for Riverside," she told the Gazette. "My greatest unmet need is to teach children."

Jenkins also organizes the Pardi Gras Pub Crawl, My Learning Studio OUTREACH's largest annual fundraiser, which combines social events and community engagement to support the nonprofit's tutoring programs.

She credits her 2014 participation in the Greater Riverside Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Riverside program as a pivotal moment in her development. For others looking to build a similar path in the community, her advice is direct: nurture relationships, stay engaged, and always be kind.

"Build your professional and personal relationships by nurturing, collaborating, cultivating, and weeding," Jenkins said. "Give of yourself by volunteering, being active and engaging with your community, and promote others. Always, always be nice."

More information: My Learning Studio is located at 17086 Van Buren Blvd. in Riverside's Woodcrest neighborhood. Families seeking tutoring assistance can call (951) 789-5402 or visit MyLearningStudio.com.