The Rotary Club of Kirkland Student of the Month program continues in January with four student of the month, three for the month and one rescheduled from November.
Ally Thompson met club members on Monday, January 9. Ally describes herself as a hardworking, intelligent woman who values community service and sharing information to expand her opinions and knowledge of things that are interesting to her. Her high priority goals include graduating from high school and getting a part time office job. One of Ally’s major accomplishments is returning to high school for a fifth year after missing many months, and maintaining her above-average GPA and relationship with my community despite great challenges. She says her most important community involvement is speaking to homeless youth and women at shelters at which she volunteers, which provides her insight on their lives, and the capacity to see life from a different perspective.
Stuart Barry also met club members on Monday, January 9. Stuart is a proud member of the Kirkland community who exemplifies a commitment to "Service Over Self" through service on the Kirkland Youth Council (KYC) and Teen Traffic Court. Additionally, Stuart completed a pre-college immersion course at Columbia University, and focused on how we can do well in various industries while embracing principles of equity, access, participation, and human rights. This experience solidified his goal to study finance and economics, and ultimately earn an advanced degree in interdisciplinary studies.
Then on January 23, Rotarians will be introduced to Ria Mohan, January Student of the Month from Juanita High School. As an aspiring healthcare professional, Ria has her heart set on becoming a surgeon for underserved populations. Her goal is to ensure accessible healthcare, especially in the menstrual health and organ transplant fields for those who face economic and geographical barriers to medical services. She founded the TRIO Youth Ambassadorship for Organ & Tissue Donation Awareness and directs the podcast, How to Save 8 Lives at Once, to highlight the life-saving power of organ donation.
Ria will be joined by Gabriella Vazquez, an Emerson High School student who was actually selected for the month of November. Gabriella says she has given up on dreams that seemed too hard most of her life, keeping it real to who she is and not letting herself dream too big. But, she wants to dream of the impossible. She wants to do as much as she can now to help her community environmentally because nothing is being done to fix the world we live in. Coming back to school and now working at a new job, she says she can finally see where she wants to be in the future, and how she wants to help.