{"id":26500,"date":"2020-05-07T18:20:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T22:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26500"},"modified":"2020-05-07T18:20:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T22:20:29","slug":"young-aurora-leaders-recognized-with-2020-give-back-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/young-aurora-leaders-recognized-with-2020-give-back-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Aurora leaders recognized with 2020 Give Back Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It remains to be\nseen whether students will be able to get back into their classrooms before the\nend of the 2019-2020 school year, but 20 Grade 12 students preparing for post-secondary\neducation this fall have been recognized for the enduring legacies they have\nleft behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mark National Volunteer Week\nlast month, Neighbourhood Network announced the 2020 recipients of the Give\nBack Awards, an annual cash prize donated by Magna International to recognize\nstudents, regardless of their specific post-secondary plans, who have dedicated\nthemselves to making their schools and wider communities better places to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, The Auroran\nspotlighted five recipients attending Aurora schools, and this week we profile\ntheir peers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KIANA MIRSHAHI (Aurora High School)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a young\nage, Kiana had a burning passion to help people; specifically, vulnerable and\nmarginalized groups that have trouble getting their voices heard. Within school,\nshe has been actively involved in various clubs such as Mental Health\nCouncil\/Wellness club, Social Change Makers, Student\u2019s Global Issues Club and\nshe has also been an active member in her school\u2019s Equity Club. Outside of\nschool, Kiana is an active peer to peer supporter and founding member of a\nyouth lead mental health initiative called Peerify and is a member of the Town\nof Aurora\u2019s Youth Engagement Committee. Kiana aspires to make the world a\nbetter place and she believes it\u2019s the act of volunteering that assures her she\nis working towards her dreams. An interesting fact about Kiana is that she is a\nmusic fanatic. She loves singing, writing songs, playing the piano and anything\nelse music-related!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHRISTINA\nPARASKEVOPOULOS (Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChristina\nbelieves volunteering is an important element in her school and community and\nfinds fulfillment in helping others. She is part of her school\u2019s Peer Mentor\nGroup, Art of All event, has assisted in elementary school track and field\ndays, planned and ran the school\u2019s annual Swabbing Drive (to match bone marrow\ndonors) and has volunteered at Parents\u2019 Night. In addition, Christina has taken\non many leadership opportunities, such as being a leader of their We to We Team\nwhich holds monthly initiatives to help local and global communities, has led\nthe team Sarah\u2019s Stars for the Light the Night walk and has been a dedicated\nmember of the Wildcats Relay for Life team. Giving Back to Christina means\nsharing her time and skills with organizations to make a positive difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELISE QUAIL (ESC\nRenaissance)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElise is\npassionate about spreading positivity wherever she can. She has been a very\nactive volunteer in both her school and community. She is Executive Pastoral\nCouncil President, leader of various Pastoral committees, Student Council\nVice-President and Relay for Life leader, Grade 7 camp leader, Anti-Bullying\nCommittee member, plus many more. She has been involved with many initiatives\nthat support local charities such as Inn from the Cold, Blue Doors Shelter, and\nthe Aurora Food Pantry. Elise believes that it is important to find joy in\nevery moment and to make meaningful and long-lasting connections with people\naround her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABIGAIL REIST (Aurora High\nSchool)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbigail has\nbeen committed to making her community better. She has made many positive\ncontributions to students and has demonstrated significant initiatives and\ngenerous acts of kindness to those in need. She has dedicated a lot of her time\nat the Teen Challenge Ontario Women\u2019s Centre, a rehabilitation for women\novercoming substance addictions. She volunteers at her church where she\nparticipates in the band, Sunday School program, summer day camp, and she also\nsits on the Mission Committee where she helps decide which organizations to\nsupport financially. On top of all the hours Abigail spends volunteering, she\nhas had a story published by Polar Expressions Publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMANDA ROUND (Aurora High School)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmanda is a hard-working student and a dedicated volunteer. Within her school, she founded STEM, a group of volunteers who create eco-friendly projects and educate others about environmental sustainability. She has led a co-ed team to program a weather station, started school-wide campaigns such as #donttrashtech and she has also fundraised for causes such as supporting rain forest conservation in Ecuador. Aside from volunteering Amanda loves singing, reading, and being a plant mom. She plays competitive soccer and has played the French horn in her school band for six years. After graduation Amanda is planning to attend McMaster University where she hopes to major in molecular biology and genetics with a minor in environmental science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It remains to be seen whether students will be able to get back into their classrooms before the end of the 2019-2020 school year, but 20 Grade 12 students preparing for post-secondary education this fall have been recognized for the enduring legacies they have left behind. To mark National Volunteer Week last month, Neighbourhood Network […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Tq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 07:12:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}