Senior Andrew Carriero volunteers for National Honor Society, EMS and LINKS, the peer-to-peer mentorship program. He is always on the move, a look of determination about him.
“Andy is really involved in the community EMS group, and he has been doing it for years,” NHS adviser Kathleen Riley said. “He volunteers his own time to look after other people, and he doesn’t just do that as an EMS, he does that as a LINK. He is striving to make people aware that there are other needs that people have that we can give our time to help others.”
Carriero thinks it is important to do whatever he can to help. He helps others because he sees that they need help.
“I know I’m fortunate to be in a place to help others because I once needed help. My motto is essentially that if I help others, it’ll inspire them to push it forward and cause a ripple,” he said of his work.
“If someone needs help or a cause needs help, I normally set time for it or I’ll even drop what I’m doing to just contribute,” Carriero said.
Of course, taking on too much work can be stressful for anyone but he pushes through the best he can.
“I’ve found a balance that’s proven to be really helpful and good for my mental health,” he said.
He tries his hardest to help everyone he possibly can. Through volunteering he reaches for his goal of positivity and well being.
Two dormant fish tanks collected dust in the back of Mr. Trapp’s old science classroom. Where some students saw a tank, Baylee Heidrich saw an opportunity to start her dream to help the environment of the ocean.
Knowing what needed to be done to achieve her goal, Heidrich’s first step involved asking the principal, Jeff Trapp, to use the tanks for a coral reef showcase to simulate an environment in the wild.
“Baylee’s coral reef tank makes it real for the students here,” stem teacher Robert Richards said. “Students don’t normally have the opportunity to be around a coral reef environment. This way, they have the opportunity to participate or become involved with that environment.”
Heidrich’s dream turned into an activist role of showing other students how humans can affect or help the living creatures of the water.
“I don’t think people know they are actually animals, not plants,” Heidrich said. “Each piece of coral contains billions of animals that live as a colony.”
Of the coral reef problem, she explains that, “Algae lives inside the coral, and that’s how they get food. When it gets too hot, the algae leaves the coral and the coral starve to death.” This leads to the bleaching of the coral, or in other words, a slow death.
There are thousands of endangered species within the oceans. Heidrich dedicated herself to informing those around her of what is actually happening to the species, like coral in areas like the Great Barrier Reef.
“The project ties several other projects together,” Richards said. “It ties two projects of American Samoa working with the National Marine Sanctuary there. It also fits together with our work at Marine Lab in Key Largo, Florida and working with the coral down there.”
All these projects looked at different environmental factors according to Richards.
Heidrich “is trying to grow coral similar to what we found at American Samoa,” he said.
After this high school work, Heidrich’s dream is to teach Marine Sciences at an outreach program such as the Discovery Halls Program at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. She plans to attend the University of South Alabama and study marine science.
“Eventually,” Heidrich said, “I want to give kids similar opportunities that I got when I was in high school, such as traveling, hands on work and ray technology.”
Caption: Senior Baylee Heidrich looks through the glass at her coral, observing how it is bleaching. PHOTO TYLER GIPSON
Two dormant fish tanks collected dust in the back of Mr. Trapp’s old science classroom. Where some students saw a tank, Baylee Heidrich saw an opportunity to start her dream to help the environment of the ocean.
Knowing what needed to be done to achieve her goal, Heidrich’s first step involved asking the principal, Jeff Trapp, to use the tanks for a coral reef showcase to simulate an environment in the wild.
“Baylee’s coral reef tank makes it real for the students here,” stem teacher Robert Richards said. “Students don’t normally have the opportunity to be around a coral reef environment. This way, they have the opportunity to participate or become involved with that environment.”
Heidrich’s dream turned into an activist role of showing other students how humans can affect or help the living creatures of the water.
“I don’t think people know they are actually animals, not plants,” Heidrich said. “Each piece of coral contains billions of animals that live as a colony.”
Of the coral reef problem, she explains that, “Algae lives inside the coral, and that’s how they get food. When it gets too hot, the algae leaves the coral and the coral starve to death.” This leads to the bleaching of the coral, or in other words, a slow death.
There are thousands of endangered species within the oceans. Heidrich dedicated herself to informing those around her of what is actually happening to the species, like coral in areas like the Great Barrier Reef.
“The project ties several other projects together,” Richards said. “It ties two projects of American Samoa working with the National Marine Sanctuary there. It also fits together with our work at Marine Lab in Key Largo, Florida and working with the coral down there.”
All these projects looked at different environmental factors according to Richards.
Heidrich “is trying to grow coral similar to what we found at American Samoa,” he said.
After this high school work, Heidrich’s dream is to teach Marine Sciences at an outreach program such as the Discovery Halls Program at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. She plans to attend the University of South Alabama and study marine science.
“Eventually,” Heidrich said, “I want to give kids similar opportunities that I got when I was in high school, such as traveling, hands on work and ray technology.”
He may only be a sophomore, but he has accomplished much in working to help others. This student is Brenden Yannella, who has been a part of SRSLY for 7 years now.
SRSLY’s mission is to empower and equip area youth to reach their full potential by remaining substance-free.
His motivation? Yannella enjoys helping others through SRSLY, and he wants to help stop the growing drug epidemic.
“SRSLY hosts and attends community events like A Day in the Village, open houses at the schools, [teen friendly] community events held at Heritage and Smith and others,” Yannella said of his volunteer time.
He helps people when he can. He feels it is the right thing to do.
Emily Stewart, the Coalition Director of SRSLY Stockbridge thinks Yannella is the right young activist for this role.
“Brenden has been a dedicated member since joining our coalition in the 5th grade,” Steward said. She described Yanella as a teen who has a passion for what he does.
“Brenden has volunteered 390 hours since 2014,” Stewart said.
He also went through numerous training courses. According to Stewart, Yanella attended the Youth Empowerment Solutions program, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) Mid-Year Training Institute, and he has attended the Youth to Youth International Conference three times. Yannella said he would like to see the world change for the better.
Caption:With a teammate, sophomore Brenden Yannella creates the fundraising poll for SRSLY at Halloween.
PHOTO ELIZABETH CYR
As the sunrise captivated the sky, another day to work toward the rank of Eagle Scout began.
Through each day of helping other scouts finish their service projects, senior Kaleb Adkins’s talent and passion for helping the community made his dream a reality through his activism.
“This has been a big dream of mine. I’ve wanted to be an Eagle Scout since I was in kindergarten,” Adkins said. “It is something that took literally years to get here.”
Each scout working toward the rank of Eagle gets to choose his own projects to benefit the community in some way. In his grandfather’s woodshop on April 14, 2019, Adkins started building a couple benches for the school trail as one of his service projects.
Looking at the weather ahead of time, Adkins with Landen and Aiden Schipul set up the materials in the parking lot of the woodshop with a canopy overhead. After days of working on and off in the rain, the benches were finished and ready to set in the trail behind the school.
The ranks within journey begin with Scout, then Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life and Eagle according to the Boy Scouts of America.
In order for a scout to achieve the rank of Eagle, scouts must be active in the troop for at least six months as a Life Scout.
The scout must earn at least 21 merit badges and build up many service hours with completed service projects.
Within each rank, scouts complete multiple projects for the community such as little boxes of vegetables or garden boxes.
“It’s not really the stuff that you do,” Adkins said. “It’s more of the work to get there and the honor that it takes or the grind that it takes to get to that point, as well as the honor that you receive afterward.”