Leila Ramos stood out as a gifted preschooler and future Mensa member as kid who could solve complex problems and set puzzle pieces straight. A decade later, those complex problems include curbing the fentanyl crisis in the hope that young lives will be saved.
Ramos, a 16-year-old West Feliciana High senior, recently discussed her journey from preschool at LSU to founding Hope Resuscitated, a nonprofit focused on educating teenagers and young adults about overdose prevention. Inspired by family losses to overdose, she aims to provide Narcan and raise awareness.
Pint-size prodigy to mini-Mensa
Ramos’ educational path includes several schools but started at the LSU Lab school preschool program. More than 100 years ago, the school was started as an independent system to provide training opportunities for pre- and in-service teachers and to serve as a demonstration and research center. Ramos has fond memories of working with pottery and developing a love for reading.
Testing and assessments found something more substantial than “likes to read.” Ramos, the staff discovered was performing at a very advanced level for her age and she was designated “gifted” as a preschooler.
The world-renowned Mensa Society became a part of Ramos young life soon after her designation. No little kid asks, “Can I be a Mensa when I grow up,” but there she was joining the more than 50,000 members of American Mensa, the largest national Mensa operating under Mensa International.
Mensa is a collection of the world’s smartest minds. They range from 2 to 106 and score in the top 2 % of the population on a standardized IQ test. Members can meet and help others through community-oriented activities operated by the Mensa Foundation.
Ramos, whose mother is a native of the Felicianas and whose father is from El Salvador, spent the next years in FLAIM, Baton Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet. FLAIM combines academic goals with foreign language immersion in French, Mandarin or Spanish. Through immersion programs, students learn academic subjects in another language. FLAIM students learn math, science and social studies in their target language.
Her parents moved the family back to the Felicianas after the 2016 flood and Ramos attended both East and West Feliciana parish schools. For many gifted children, the forces that drive them can make school more like “work” than most would imagine. “I think it's kind of put a lot of academic pressure on me since I was little,” Ramos said. “I've always really wanted academic validation, and I put my self-worth into it so, it gets hard. But I wouldn't be as successful if I didn't so, I'm also grateful.”
Pain and grief present difficult puzzle
Intelligence can label a young person, but tragedy can define one’s life and send even the brightest minds into a tailspin. Enter the fentanyl crisis — a puzzle with painful, jagged edges. Ramos said she lost “too many family members to count” to drugs, but in 2023, her teenage cousin Benji died of a fentanyl overdose.
Fentanyl was developed to help people. It is a synthetic opioid originally used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery. Fentanyl is a Schedule II controlled substance, like morphine, but about 100 times stronger.
Benji never entered his 20s but became one of hundreds of thousands killed quickly by just small amounts of the dangerous drug. After two decades with a total of 564,000 opioid overdose deaths, the U.S. overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in 2021 with 67 % of those coming from fentanyl alone.
The already shy and quiet teen withdrew even more. It was not her fault, but having a mind full of thoughts left Ramos crippled by grief and the need to do something.
Plan sparks new ‘Hope’
Ramos found many avenues addressing drug addiction and overdose, but few fine-tuned to reach and save the other Benjis of the world; focused on just teens and young adults. Hope Resuscitated was her brainchild and the key to unlocking her own painful puzzle and the need to impact change.
The nonprofit was started to equip and educate teens to prevent fentanyl overdoses and provide access to resources like Narcan, a lifesaving medication that can reverse opioid overdoses. Ramos said she never imagined leading a cause like Hope Resuscitated, but after losing Benji and other family members she found herself asking, "Why me? Why now?"
The effort has been liberating. “Instead of being paralyzed by those questions, I decided to take action,” Ramos said. “It’s staggering that two-thirds of overdose deaths happen with bystanders near — people who could save a life if they only knew how.”
Ramos launched a website full of resources and detailed plans with the help of her mother Cierra Ramos. The site offers insight on the crisis and educates visitors on how to recognize an overdose. Volunteers are being recruited and the effort wants to have the funds to distribute the lifesaving antidote to teenagers.
Young life goes full circle
Ramos is returning to LSU in the fall to participate in the Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Baton Rouge. The school-year-long program transforms high school students into skilled entrepreneurs under the instruction of the LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business faculty and staff.
YEA BR helps students launch their very own companies, generate business ideas, write business plans, file their businesses with the Secretary of State’s office, and pitch their plans to a Shark Tank-like panel for funding resources.
Ramos wants to gain the knowledge and funding to turn her awareness effort into a functioning nonprofit organization and make Narcan accessible without shame.
LSU will remain a big part of her 2025. She will be an incoming freshman and plans to major in biology and become a doctor, preferably a radiologist, while continuing her nonprofit work.
Ramos is sedately serious for a 16-year-old, but hopeful and excited about leaving the positive impact on society that will save young people like her late cousin Benji. “That’s why I founded Hope Resuscitated — to ensure teens and young adults have access to Naloxone and the knowledge to use it,” she said. “We can't save everyone, but if we can save even one life, it’s worth it.”
For information, visit
https://hope-resuscitated.org/