Jean Madeline Aveda Institute students volunteered for this year's Night To Shine event from the Tim Tebow Foundation.

About Night to Shine

Night to Shine is an unforgettable event hosted by the Tim Tebow Foundation. Every year, donors and contributors put together a prom night experience for people with special needs aged 14 and older. Night to Shine takes place in hundreds of locations around the world. This year was the 5th anniversary and was held at 655 churches around the world, and honored approximately 100,000 "prom kings and queens".

How We Get Involved

JMAI has been involved with helping to prim and pamper the special guests attending the prom that is held at local churches for a few years. This year we partnered with Epic Church located here in Philadelphia. We invited the guests to come in for hair, makeup and men's grooming services.

It was easy for us to get involved in an event as special as this one since we are very active in providing prom styling services to the many high schools in the Philadelphia Region. Everyone wants to feel beautiful on prom night, and we were happy to have the guests of Epic Church spend the afternoon with us. We had about 15 students participating and 6 staff members volunteer to help about 20 guests who came in for services.

The Difference Our Students Made

The students were so happy to have the opportunity to participate and meet so many special people. They all said how rewarding it was to give back to the community in such a unique way. The reason why so many go into the cosmetology field is because they have a desire to make people feel beautiful. We were so proud to be a part of Night to Shine, staff and students alike.

All our guests were so incredible to work with. One of the most memorable moments was when a "prom queen" saw herself in the mirror after her hair and makeup was complete, she started to cry. The student immediately got concerned that she was not happy with how she looked. The young lady turned to the student and hugged her saying that she had never felt so beautiful in her whole life.

We loved watching the students laughing and smiling with our guests that day. Many of them were giving selfie lessons and helping our guests from Epic Church practice strutting their stuff on the runway.

Events Help Students Become Better Professionals

This event helped to teach our students how to look at each guest as an individual and showed them that the needs of each guest are different. Here at JMAI, giving back to the community is a value we embrace. This was one of the many ways we try to share that with our students.

Our students volunteered for the Philadelphia prom night and provided hair and makeup services to those attending. It was a heartwarming experience for us and our students! We loved being involved in this charitable event because it reminds us what beauty is all about: making people feel like their best selves. It was an awesome opportunity for our students to make a big difference, and we can't wait to get involved again next year!

Want to learn more about Night To Shine? Click here for more information on how you can get involved or donate to future prom nights.