CHS student wins Spirit of Youth Community Scholarship
Esther and a Zambian child during the Summer of 2009.
March 15, 2010 • Meg Mielke, Editor
Filed under 2009-2010
Out of the two students winning the Prudential Spirit of the Community Scholarship in the state of Alaska, one of them is a senior at Chugiak High School.
Esther Smith was selected, after being nominated by Chugiak High (via Candi Dixon of the career resource center), from a pool of other Alaskan high school volunteers.
“I’m honored to be chosen for such a prestigious award and opportunity. I had no expectations to win, and was shocked and euphoric when I received the news,” Smith said about the honor.
This award is designed to acknowledge individuals who volunteer significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country. Things like grades and recommendations played a minor (if any) roll in the selection.
Smith has a long history of volunteering, spending her last four summers in foreign nations doing missionary and aid work. During her first summer abroad (2006) she joined Teen Missions International. She went to India, and worked along the tsunami-stricken Bay of Bengal, spending a majority of her time in low-caste orphanages.
When asked about her first experience with teen missions, Smith stated, “I had always wanted to travel, but the summer of India opened my eyes to so much more than tourist attractions with a dash of poverty. Working hand-in-hand with native volunteers, I saw the real India—where the simple planting of one tree or the feeding of a dozen children has indescribable value.”
In 2007, her group taught English and worked with youth along the Amazon River in Brazil. During the summers of 2008 and 2009, she traveled to the deep bush of Zambia via dirt-bike with a group coined the “Orphan Angels.” While in Africa, she taught phonics daily, helped feed orphans, administered basic sanitation, completed physical building projects and filmed a documentary about the six rescue units that were visited.
“Arriving in Africa, I expected, or hoped, to make a difference in the lives of the AIDS orphans. In perhaps a small or minute way, I did. What I discovered, though, was that I left Zambia far more altered than the children I visited. The beauty of Africa is that it changes everyone in intangible ways,” Smith said, reminiscing on her past experiences.
Before her first summer in Zambia, Smith collected over 500 pairs of shoes and socks for AIDS orphans. Over the last two summers, she helped transport the majority of those shoes to children and adults across the country.
Smith has some high hopes to continue her volunteering efforts. “My dream is to become a human-rights advocate through the Peace Corps or Amnesty International. My future vocation and community service appear, at this time, indistinguishable. I want to change the world in a positive way, and volunteering is at the heart of any reform.”
The award itself is a scholarship of $1,000, accompanied by a silver medallion. Smith also earned an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. the first week of May. Activities for the trip will include touring the capitol’s landmarks and the attendance of a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Additionally, state winners will be visiting their representatives on Capitol Hill.
Finally, the 102 state honorees will be eligible for the 10 slots for the national award, which consists of an additional $5,000 scholarship, a gold medallion, crystal trophy and a $5,000 grant for a non-profit organization of the student’s choice.
For Smith, volunteering isn’t just about something you do to win awards, or to put on your college resumes. “Volunteering is, I believe, the obligation of our lifetime. The impacts of community service extend so much further than the hour’s worth of dedication to an organization, people group, or business. Community, after all, starts with us.”
