2013-2014: John Strangfeld, Senior

Career Center Specialist Candace Morris says that John Strangfeld is an exceptional young man who was selected because of his contributions to others. As a junior, John began volunteering at Sunrise Senior Living in Sterling, Virginia, helping with meals, sitting with residents as they ate, and learning their names and about their life experiences. John formed caring relationships, and he continued to volunteer until he was recently offered a part-time job. John takes his time to listen to and to befriend seniors who often say how much they appreciate his support. He says, “I get a lot of later-life perspective, and I get to see and hear and understand what kind of things are important to them.”

During the summers of 2011 and 2013, John went on mission trips to Brazil, sponsored by the Reston Bible Church youth group. He worked in Benavidez, a small, impoverished village, where he helped to build two houses and worked with the other volunteers to run a summer camp, which included games, Art, and English. He says he got to know the children as well as the poverty in which they live.

John wants to continue helping those in need find better ways to live. “I live in a Virginia suburb, which is easy. My experience in Brazil showed me what it is like to live in a place that is hard and where the people have to deal with violence and poverty.”

John says he loves working with children, and he plans to do more missionary work this summer and during the summers through his college years. He will also stay in

touch with the seniors with whom he has become very close. He hopes to go to Africa some day to help others and to promote peace. He summarizes, “I will always give time to help other people out.”

2014-2015: Katie Surana, Senior

Katie Surana draws her commitment to roles as servant-leader from the example set by her parents. She says "It's humbling to know so many people are involved in service to people in need."

Katie began helping people in need at an early age. In middle school, inspired by a Save the Children program, she and another student organized a two-week, in-school drive that raised $2000 to install a water well in an Ethiopian village.

For last summer, Katie interviewed for the two-week Rural Immersion Experience in El Socorro, Nicaragua, sponsored by Amos Health and Hope. Participants are typically students working on advanced college degrees, but she was accepted as the only high school student. Her 11-person team worked 18 hours each day, installing a PVC pipeline to bring rainwater from a mountainside down to the village, sampling water in the village, testing 600 children for anemia and malnutrition, providing anemia medication and deworming treatment, and explaining the need for home water filters to participating families. Having lived with a host family in the village, Katie reflected that "People are a lot more similar than we realize," and she was moved by "examples of human generosity even from people who have nothing."

Katie organized Page's Closet, an outreach program of the school's Key Club, involving 80 students. With the support of staff, the Closet has a room of its own stocked with donations of food, clothing, and other necessities which the Key Club members distribute to low-income families. Soon, they plan to provide goods to families in El Socorro.

Katie founded the Model United Nations Club at Herndon High as a freshman, and has served as its president ever since. The members meet in conferences with other Model UN Clubs in Fairfax County throughout the year.

To equip herself for a career of advocacy for people living in poverty, Katie plans to earn an undergraduate degree in business and do postgraduate studies in international law and foreign policy.

2015-2016: Smriti Subedi, Senior

Born in Nepal, Smriti Subedi draws her commitment to roles as servant-leader from the example set by her mother, a social worker whose profession took her into many homes in Nepal. As a young girl, Smriti often visited clients with her mother. When she was 10 years old, Smriti and her family moved to the US.

The disastrous earthquakes in Nepal in the spring of 2015 inspired Smriti to organize relief efforts to assist Nepalese people suffering loss of their homes, livelihoods, food, and water. As president of Herndon High's Interact Club, she organized students to collect a total of 15 cases of clothes for the Red Cross to distribute to Nepalese people. Under her leadership, fellow students sent out flyers and went door-to-door for two weekends, accepting monetary contributions totaling more than $1700. Interact Club also partnered with Shelter Box, the Lions Club, and the Rotary Club to provide shelter, clothing, and food for displaced Nepalese people and replacement uniforms for school children.

Smriti and her parents spent a month last summer aiding Nepalese people. They purchased food staples and brought them to the children in an orphanage in the capital, Kathmandu. While there, she also helped the children with their school studies. Thanks to the efforts of Interact members and members of organizations such as Rotary International, they were also able to bring school supplies and clothes to students in the village of Chintutar whose secondary school was severely damaged by the earthquakes.

As part of her immersion in the earthquake aftermath, Smriti volunteered at two hospitals. She observed patient care by visiting with patients and shadowing doctors on their rounds. This outreach helped her better compare medical care in developing countries with that in the US.

Interact, in cooperation with Nepal's Rotary Club, has now begun a project to raise money to restock the school library in Chintutar to help the children with their studies.

2016-2017: Surabhi Khanal, Senior

Surabhi Khanal draws her commitment to the role of servant-leader from Anne Ryan, Reston Lions Club president and Herndon Leo Club advisor, and from her uncle, Dr. Naresh Neupane, currently a post-doctoral researcher at Georgetown University, who has encouraged her to “think big” in her aspirations for education and for service. Surabhi has been an active member of the Herndon Leo Club since the 10th grade, and served as president during 2015-2016. Surabhi, a naturalized citizen, was born in Nepal and moved to the US when she was a baby.

Surabhi is the founder of MedLove, Inc., which she established with the IRS as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization. The mission of MedLove (a combination of ‘medicine’ and ‘love’) is to help rescue women, both domestically and internationally, who are victims of human trafficking. The MedLove website is www.medloveinc.org/.

In 2010 Surabhi travelled to Nepal and saw children living on the streets. Through that experience, she became acquainted with the work of Anuradha Koirala, named a CNN Hero for 2010, whose non-governmental-organization, Maiti Nepal, provides housing, hospital care, and schools for children in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In December 2016, as one of the first MedLove projects, Surabhi worked with Herndon Key Club members and students from other high schools to create the Night in Kathmandu Gala. The benefit dinner helped raise awareness of local human trafficking and raised $3,000 to combat HIV and AIDS in Nepal.

Emily plans to attend the University of Virginia to study International Relations and Foreign Languages. As Andrea Acosta notes, “South Lakes High School is fortunate to have Emily as an agent for peace. She will be missed next year as she leaves us to make the world, or her part of it, a better place.”

2017-2018: Joyce Lee, Senior

Joyce Lee began her community service as a freshman by tutoring in reading, writing and math at Herndon Elementary School.  She has volunteered at Jill's House in Vienna which provides overnight respite for families raising children with intellectual disabilities. Last summer,Joyce she met several students who joined her in a concert which raised $1,300 for victims of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey.

Through Young Musicians Inspiring Change (YMIC), Joyce performs at a nursing and retirement home in Falls Church, and participates in YMIC fund-raising performances for charitable causes.

2018-2019: Lydia Goff, Senior

For the past two years, Lydia Goff has served as president of her school's Best Buddies chapter. Best Buddies International, a nonprofit organization operating in all 50 states and on 6 continents, enlists volunteers to create opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in middle school, high school, and college.

Volunteers seek to foster genuine, one-to-one friendships between people with and without IDD. Lydia meets her buddy every morning, and she has lunch with her and several other buddies daily. She notes that Best Buddies "allows students with IDD to have a true high school experience." She has organized monthly social events, meetings after school, one-to-one get-togethers, and fundraisers for the 90 students registered in the program.

Last year, Herndon Best Buddies was selected as the Most Outstanding High School Chapter in the Capital Region, and Lydia was awarded the D.C. United Community Star Award in recognition of her service.

Lydia is also a leader in ‘Spread the Word to End the Word’, a national effort to end the use of the demeaning ‘r-word’ (retarded). School Counselor Nile Shaikh says, "Bridging the gap . . . between the student population with IDD [and other students] has been a lifelong passion for Lydia."

She has been a member of the school's Interact Club (a Rotary International program) since her freshman year, and she currently serves as president. Lydia finds community service projects for club members, and leads monthly meetings with guest speakers.

In her own words, Lydia places a premium on "patience, compassion, and the value of inclusion in our society."

2019-2020: Nabaa Abdel Okhowa, Senior

When Nabaa Abdel Okhowa was five years old, she and her family settled in the US as Iraqi refugees with the assistance of the US government, including the Army for which her father had worked as a translator in Iraq.

In the ninth grade, Nabaa and three other Iraqi-American girls founded Girls-4-Girls (Girls-4-Girls.org), a nonprofit organization established "to educate, empower, and provide opportunities to disadvantaged girls around the world." At this time, the organization primarily serves girls in Sierra Leone and in the Yezidi community of Iraq. Nabaa serves as co-president of the organization.

Through influential contacts in Sierra Leone and in the Yezidi community (the latter through the Free Yezidi Foundation), Girls-4-Girls solicits funds to support girls living in poverty in those areas. Part of this income provides clothing, books, backpacks, and school supplies to an orphanage in Sierra Leone. Supplies are also obtained through collection boxes in various schools. Members of Girls-4-Girls Skype with the girls in the orphanage and help them learn English. Nabaa notes that statistics show that educated women are less likely to marry early or against their will and are less likely to die in childbirth.

Nabaa stresses that she is "blessed to be one of the few able to make it to America as a refugee and rebuild my life. After visiting Iraq in 2012, I noticed how privileged we are here in America. We never have to worry about having enough hot water available for a shower, or having clothes to wear. I have learned how one small action can save a person's life."