Student of the Month January 2023
Emerson High School
Ally Thompson 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. She wants to be able to talk to professionals and learn more about the world from adults who have different life experiences than she. A significant challenge describes facing is her mental and physical health and framing her life and goals around those things. Ally says she can shape my struggles into strength and use them to achieve things she wants; however, they are often a burden and she finds it hard to live what most people would see as a "normal" life. 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.Lake Washington High School
Stuart Barry 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. In these positions, he advocates for his peers and develops, coordinates, and implements events and programs within his community. At Teen Traffic Court, Stuart often serves as judge or jury member to help teens who have received traffic violations find ways to reduce their fines through community service. His success in these roles resulted in his election to the KYC leadership team during his fourth year. 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. It was his first exposure to dynamic discussions about some of the largest social problems we face today as fundamentally economic challenges. This experience solidified his goal to study finance and economics, and ultimately earn an advanced degree in interdisciplinary studies. He feels a career that allows him to help others while advocating for equity and human rights would be a rewarding and worthwhile challenge.Juanita High School
As an optimistic aspiring healthcare professional, Ria Mohan 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. As part of reaching this goal, she conducted a research project on how to support local menstruators and partnered with Seattle T2P2 to coordinate donations of menstrual products to women's shelters. Additionally, 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. My most important contributions to the community consist of volunteering at the Swedish Medical Center as a junior health scholar, and serving as a side-walker at Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center. The patient interaction Ria experienced at both medical establishments helped her gain critical communication and empathy skills. Finally, she is very involved with the Future Health Professionals, and as a former state officer and current chapter officer actively inspires the next generation of healthcare workers through club bonding, fundraising, and organizing workshops while expanding her medical sciences horizons.