2016-2017: Jasmine Howard, Senior

Jasmine “Jazzy” Howard was in search of something to do for others less fortunate. While attending the Key Club district convention in Baltimore last year, she discovered Yuda bands, finely crafted leather wristbands made in Guatemala. Each band features a piece of coconut shell decorated with a unique symbol or animal shape inlaid into the leather. Colored strings are attached to the band. Jazzy feels that selecting a particular design and colored strings makes the bands more customized and personal to the buyer.

The plan presented at the convention was to have students sell bands for $7 each. Part of that money would be returned to the artisans in Guatemala, with the remainder donated to a disadvantaged foreign youth which Jazzy could select from a list of candidates. Jazzy was attracted by this double benefit: supporting poor people in Guatemala and also assisting a deserving youth. Jazzy and her team chose Jabu Moyo, a 15 year-old boy from Zimbabwe. Jabu said he is passionate about pursuing an education and becoming a teacher in his native land, and Jazzy is similarly passionate about education, believing that it breaks the cycle of poverty and is a chief contributor to peace.

Jazzy gathered a team of helpers from her school’s Key Club. They created advertising posters and speaker announcements, and then set up shop in the school cafeteria for ten days during lunch. The group sold 240 wristbands. When combined with other donations, over $1700 was contributed to the project. Jazzy notes, “I was pleased that so many students wanted to contribute. Several students even gave us $20 dollar bills, and told us to keep the rest for the charity!”

2017-2018: Ricardo Avalos, Junior

Ricardo Avalos came to the US only two years ago and already became the first president of his school’s United International Students’ Association, a club which helps students who are learning English to be less socially isolated. He encouraged his peers to relate more to others outside the group and invited other students to join the club to help make the foreign-born students feel more included. Ricardo is also an active member of the LearnServe Fellows program, which brings together high school students from the Washington DC area to learn how to bring sustainable social change to their communities.

2018-2019: Deepika Joshi, Senior

Deepika Joshi, was born in Nepal and entered U.S. schools in the fifth grade. Her passion is finding ways to help refugees adapt to life and succeed here and in other countries

Deepika’s desire to support refugees stems from her experience attending school in a developing country where the plight of destitute refugees was clearly visible. After settling in the U.S., she began to realize that she had the power and resources to help improve refugees’ lives.

She is the founder and president of her school’s chapter of Students Together Assisting Refugees (STAR). STAR's purpose is to help refugees overcome the hurdles which often leave them in emotional, mental, and physical distress. Deepika recruited 35 members, and led STAR through several projects. She initiated "Letters of Hope," which involved Centreville students writing letters of encouragement to Lebanese children. She also organized bake sales, contributing the proceeds to the UN Refugee Agency. Finally she led a clothing drive which collected over 90 garments to help refugees in Bosnia and Syria.

Deepika says she believes that people must put their beliefs and words into actions, and she hopes to make a tangible difference in the lives of refugees. She says, “If I can inspire just one person through my work, then that person will inspire another. At the end, this will allow us to forget what separates us and to focus on what binds us together.”

2019-2020: Yebin (Sophia) Lee, Senior

Sophia Lee came to this country from South Korea when she was 3½ years old. Over the ensuing years, Sophia has become a passionate advocate for the poor, supporting programs in the US and abroad.

Sophia says that her concept of world peace remained foggy until she was in 9th grade and participated in a trip to Harlem and the Bronx sponsored by Youth with a Mission, a Christian organization with a global outreach. “I had never encountered such brokenness, even on the news,” she said. “There were broken windows in the apartments, glass everywhere on the ground, and people living on the sidewalks. My heart ached for these people." Sophia says this experience made her want to work for others in unfortunate circumstances, and it helped her to break down her stereotypes about ethnic groups. It also gave her a greater empathy for other people and the difficult circumstances they often face.

Sophia began to volunteer every Saturday with 12 Baskets, a Northern Virginia based charity, providing care packages to the homeless living around Washington’s Union Station. Inspired by this experience, Sophia started a club at her school to bring students together to aid people in poverty. She partnered with Compassion International, an international child-advocacy program aiding children in extreme poverty, to start Centreville High School’s Compassion Club. She has recruited 60 club members who help her raise money for wells, medications, farm animals, academic scholarships, and care packages to support children around the world. As part of this effort, the club has raised money through partnerships with local restaurants (a percentage of the night’s receipts are donated to the club), as well

as bake sales, movie nights, and candygrams. This past holiday season, the club worked with Operation Christmas Child to send presents to four children in Honduras. Sophia says, “It’s my dream and goal to see change all around the world, and I know that this is a start.”