Ten extraordinary sophomores from Wayland and Weston were recognized on Nov. 21 for their contributions of service in their communities by the Rotary Club of Weston and Wayland. Each of the students received the Rotary’s Rising Youth Leadership Award (RYLA).

Wayland High School’s Emily Chafe and Lucas Tang, along with Weston High’s Maya Shamari and Sarah Lappi, go above and beyond, displaying a passion for helping others. They were nominated by students, friends, teachers, advisors, community members and mentors.

 

Emily Chafe, according to Valentina Micolisin, a Wayland High junior, “took the lead to organize the WHS students for the climate strike on Friday, Sept. 20. Over the summer she worked with the climate strike committee in Boston to organize the strike, and she made a Facebook group and organized transportation and carpools to make sure everyone from WHS that wanted to strike could find a way to get to Boston.

“She also actively posted on social media and sent out an all-school email to inform students around the school about the strike, and she went to the strike herself. By actively taking leadership to make sure everyone could attend a cause, she revealed her leadership potential.”

Maya Shamari of Weston is an excellent example of service to the community. She has gained the respect and admiration of her peers and teachers through her numerous service activities and hard-working attitude.

Over several years, she has participated in the Jimmy Fund Walk and volunteered at the Perkins School for the Blind.

Several teachers noted that “Maya generously helps students who are struggling in class.” According to Sue Write, “Maya volunteered to be a counselor at my day camp for many years, and she has managed to gain over 100 hours of service over the past summers.”

Bobbi Rockett, a friend, agreed, writing, “Maya is probably the girl most into community service of any person I know. Not many people know how much she does for the community. She has walked five Jimmy Fund Marathon Walks, is on the community leadership team at her school, is a part of the Jimmy Fund Club at her school, engages in school fundraising project such as the Haunted House, PumpkinFest, charity exercise groups, and Putting for Patients.”

Lucas Tang is involved with the Wayland-Weston crew team and is always there to lend a helping hand. Sandra Cardillo, head novice boys coach, said, “Lucas is a great role model for the new novice boys. He is the first at practice and the last to leave. I have been coaching for 10 years and it is really rare to find a young athlete with the work ethic that Lucas has. He is not only a good athlete and a good student, he is also a great teammate.

“Lucas is a quiet leader. You will see him in the front pulling the team along and leading by example, or you will see him in the middle of the pack encouraging everybody, or you will see him in the back making sure that no one gets left behind.”

Mark Nolan recounted Tang’s role in organizing eSports at Wayland High School, saying, “This year, he was unanimously chosen to be captain of the Overwatch team and has succeeded in including all students in competitions, even those with extremely limited experience. The other students have looked to him for strategy and trusted in him to decide who will play each game.”

What impressed Nolan most happened “during a closely contested match. Lucas had advocated for a student with a lower skill level to play a match, but other students did not want to take the risk of losing. In the determining fifth game, Lucas sat himself and allowed the student to take a spot, despite the protestations of some of his peers. After losing the match, Lucas and I were both able to lead a discussion talking about our team values – winning comes second to giving everyone a chance to play, and everyone should be having fun.”

Wayland teacher Jay Moody also holds Tang in high regard.

“Lucas has shown incredible maturity and insight in my innovation class this year. He has been the single most consistent and clever participant in our deep classroom discussions. One day Lucas stayed late after class to explain to me an idea he had for using the pressure of water in the ocean to cause a semi-permeable membrane to perform reverse osmosis to generate clean drinking water. I thought, ’Here is this high school sophomore proposing sophisticated, technologically challenging ideas for how the world could work better – this is the type of mindset that I believe the RYLA award was designed to honor and cultivate.”

Sarah Lappi has been an active student at Weston High since her freshman year. She has been involved in the anti-bullying and harassment group. She started the American Sign Language club, advocates for mental health, and raises money and awareness for animals displaced from homes after wildfires separated them from their owners.

Lappi is an excellent role model to many, always showing the power kindness can have on a person. She has taken the initiative to stand up for others whenever she can and however she can. Whether it be working with school administration addressing bullying and harassment in order to stop the spread of hate, or volunteering her time to assist in middle school drama productions as assistant director, choreographer and hair/makeup artist, Lappi has shown she is willing to go above and beyond in order to lend a helping hand.

Lappi believes that “small acts of kindness have the ability to make a large impact on someone’s life and our community.”

Lappi started helping and mentoring her peers and classmates during elementary school when she mentored an autistic child and met with administration to discuss creating a buddy system where children in the special education program would be paired with others to enhance their social and emotional well-being.

In middle school, Lappi was chosen by the vice principal to be a student ambassador for an anti-bullying program. She was chosen because of her strength as an “upstander.”

Additionally, she volunteered as a student ambassador for new families and students to Weston.

Nominations for the final Rising Youth Leadership Award recipients, to be presented Feb. 26, must be submitted online by Jan. 31 using an online nomination form (https://portal.clubrunner.ca/3706/page/ryla).

Grace Keene is a senior at Ursuline Academy.

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