College Scholarships Awarded
Annually the Youth Education Committee (YEC) awards $2000.00 scholarships to two outstanding high school seniors from the EAS area. In spite of the virus, 2021 was no exception. Scholarships were awarded to Sofia Leottia from Inglemoor High School in the Northshore School District and to Alexander Raffetto, a student at Interlake High School in the Bellevue School District. Both students stood out among the other applicants and scored high on our criteria:
Keen interest in the environment/nature
Involvement in extra-curricular environmental/nature activities
College plans
Teacher/counselor recommendation
Sofia’s interests lie in a sustainable urban infrastructure, specifically transportation and food systems. This passion led her to co-found AgConnection, an education organization through which she visits elementary school classrooms to talk about sustainable food systems. Through her efforts, Inglemoor High School switched to reusable metal utensils at meals and engaged in a twenty-week conservation challenge, earning them a King County Green Schools Award. As co-president of Earth Corps, she hosted a Northshore Sustainability Projects Training, a virtual event at which 40 students planned environmental projects for their schools. This amazing young woman even joined a group of elderly residents to protest the toxic fumes from an asphalt plant near their homes. Her resume includes Green Jobs intern for Port of Seattle, Aquaponics Ambassador for Project Feed, and several other environmental leadership positions. Her plans for college? Environmental Engineering with a focus on sustainable urban design.
Alexander’s interests are with biology and particularly with birds. His realization that the world-wide avian population is declining led him to focus on the decline of biodiversity and its impact on the planet. For his Eagle Project for the Boy Scouts, he worked for a year developing plans and gathering materials to plant a variety of native flora and install custom-designed bird houses at a retirement community on Mercer Island. To accomplish this goal, he fundraised $700.00 and led a team of 12 volunteers to construct and install the finished projects on a plot of land at the retirement facility. His hope during quarantine is “that during these difficult times, the residents are enjoying the birds and the garden that I built there.” In addition, he is a Junior Naturalist for the Seattle Audubon Nature Camp each summer. As a member of his school’s Green Team, he plans projects such as removing invasive species around the school. His college plans? Biology with an emphasis on ornithology, zoology or marine biology. His focus will most likely be on research in whatever field he chooses.
Thanks to your donations, the YEC can award scholarships to amazing students such as Sofia and Alexander. Sofia wrote, “My ideas are bold. I not only admit it, but embrace it. A fundamental change to protect people and our planet requires unwavering dreamers.” Alexander joins her in being an unwavering dreamer.
Thank you!