Biography

I am a sophomore at East Mountain Charter High School outside of Albuquerque. I take an aggressive schedule of classes, including all honors classes, and carry a GPA of 4.3. This schedule keeps me very busy, studying and keeping up on assignments.

One of my passions is competitive gymnastics. A grueling year round practice schedule keeps me flexible and strong. This year I finished second in the state. In my spare time I like to work to perfect my hobby of writing. I would like to turn writing in my life's work and am compiling stories and ideas in hopes of someday having them published. I still find time to do as much community service as I can. Like any teenager I like just sitting around doing nothing at all. Unlike all teenagers though when a chance to do something for my community comes along I will get up and chase it.

Most of my chances used to come from Girl Scouts. I have worked the Roadrunner Food Bank, dressed Teddy Bears to give to Pediatric Emergency Rooms, conducted landscaping, grounds cleanup and maintenance, made blankets, collected books, toiletries, and canned goods, made cards for US Service members, collected money to buy school supplies for underprivileged children, worked booths at festivals, put on events for younger girls, and babysat for community events. When I have time and my school asks for help, I am happy to help. We recently did "Light the Night". We collected donations and I helped set up thousands of luminaries. It was really beautiful and brought our school and community together. I am a member of the recycling team, am starting a used cell phone collection to further help my school and community.

Last year I earned my Silver Award (the second highest award in Girl Scouts)! As a Junior Girl Scout I earned my Bronze Award coordinating landscaping in a neglected area at my elementary school, and soon I hope to start working on my Gold Award. Each of these awards takes many hours of dedication and hard work. For my Silver Award I decided, with a friend, to help a local shelter for women and children. We collected donations and made over 300 craft bags to keep the children busy .The craft bags were filled with a certain craft, or a make-your-own craft. It came with all the equipment the child would need to finish the craft. We also threw an educational game day to raise money to buy crafts and simultaneously teach kids safety through games.

While I hope to one day do more than I am now, at least I know I am doing something. I inspire my friends to help out. When I do we do something for the world that does so much for us and we also help each other. I hope that what I'm doing now is changing some people's lives. As I get older and continue to do more community service I hope it affects lots of people's lives. No one can change the world in one day. Till then, I'll just work on making small changes; cause doing something is way better than doing nothing.