2013-2014: Huong ‘Helen’ Tran

Tai Gauthier, Chairperson of the English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) Department, says that Helen Tran is “recognized for her outstanding role at Langley High School in helping her fellow ESOL students express themselves in English and feel comfortable at Langley.”

Helen arrived from Vietnam in 2011 with no knowledge of English. Last year she volunteered to star in the ESOL skit on International Night, which required many hours of rehearsing outside of class. Helen also encouraged other ESOL students, many quite shy about their English, to participate in the skit. One student, upon leaving to return to his native Korea, said that participation in the skit was the highlight of his time in America.

Ms. Gauthier summarizes, “Helen has always reached out to make others feel welcomed, accepted, and important. Her constant, lighthearted and sincere encouragement motivated the ESOL students to achieve a great performance. She is truly a compassionate and wonderful young lady, who has positively impacted many students and also many teachers.” When she attends college in the United States, Helen looks forward to continued association with, and providing assistance to, foreign students.

2014-2015: Jungman Shannon Suh, Senior

Langley High School Counselor Julie McGreevy describes Shannon Suh as “an exceptional student, not just for her academic prowess and intensely rigorous curriculum, but because she is a young woman who has a clear vision of her future. Shannon wants to make a difference in the world, and she is already making strides.”

Shannon participated in two summer missions with teams from the Korean Central Presbyterian Church -- to Nicaragua in 2012, and to Honduras in 2014. She plans to work in Peru in 2015. The teams spend over six months preparing for each mission, including fundraising for the trip. In both Nicaragua and Honduras, the teams worked on projects in rural areas. Shannon was inspired by her first mission to study Spanish, and following her work in Honduras, to collect books and to create a curriculum for students in the local Honduran school.

Closer to home, Shannon serves as co-president of the Langley High School Junior Civitan Club. The club’s “Relay for Life” project raised $2,000 last year for cancer research through bake sales, solicitations, and partnering with a local restaurant. Last year, Langley students experienced intense grief as a result of two student deaths. Shannon responded with the creation of Random Acts of Kindness Bags filled with notes of reassurance, jokes, and sweets. Approximately 200 of these bags were distributed with a smile to Langley students -- a small but significant effort to create good will and reassurance.

Shannon is headed for college and a life devoted to community service at home and abroad. She expresses her enthusiasm by saying, “I think that the most fulfilling feeling is knowing that you’ve tried to do something that impacts something larger than yourself.”

2015-2016: Catherine White, Senior

During her four years at Langley, Catherine White has been active in the Best Buddies club, currently serving as vice president of the school’s chapter with over 60 members. Best Buddies is an international, non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to creating opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through a variety of programs, including chapters in secondary schools throughout the US. These school clubs promote one-on-one friendships between students with disabilities and those without a disability to foster understanding, appreciation, friendship, and confidence.

Catherine’s participation goes far beyond her involvement at Langley. Recognizing the need for such a program for younger students, she started a Best Buddies club at Cooper Middle School. This involved convincing the school counselors that a Best Buddies club would be beneficial, building membership, and organizing the club’s programs. Catherine also volunteered to help plan the 2015 Best Buddies Friendship Walk in Washington, D.C., which raised $500,000 for the Capital Region Best Buddies jobs program. Catherine was selected as a representative from Langley High School to attend the Best Buddies International Leadership Conference at Indiana University, where she hopes to pursue studies in business and communication, with a minor in event planning, and a certificate in special education.

Catherine is described by her school counselor, Julie McGreevy, as “a very caring person with a sincere compassion for people which permeates her interactions with others and her choice of extra- curricular activities. Catherine has many ideas of how she will make a difference in her new community.”

2016-2017: Donya Momenian and Chrissie Ivanova, Seniors

Donya Momenian and Chrissie Ivanova co-founded a chapter of Girl Up Club at Langley High School during their sophomore year and currently serve as co-presidents. Hannah Wolff, a college and career center specialist, credits Donya and Chrissie for their commitment and energy in working locally through this United Nations Foundation adolescent girl campaign.

Motivated to work in support of women’s rights, Donya and Chrissie decided that Girl Up was the most appropriate organization. They received permission from the school administrators to approach the UN Foundation in New York City for guidance in establishing and chairing a Girl Up Club. Over 1,000 of these clubs are registered in 43 US states and 51 countries, each dedicated to empowering girls through education, fundraising, advocacy, and service. Current development programs for educating girls are in six countries: Guatemala, India, Liberia, Malawi, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The Girl Up Club at Langley has grown from two to nearly 30 members – including a few boys. Meetings are held twice a month after school and information is disseminated through Twitter and Facebook. They raise awareness and recruit new members by participating in activity fairs at Langley and Cooper Middle School. Chrissie and Donya have raised money though bake sales and the club prepared feminine hygiene packages for ‘Days for Girls’ to be distributed to adolescent girls in developing countries.

Hannah Wolff notes, “When girls are empowered, it benefits all of us. Investing in girls is key to reducing poverty: girls who receive an education marry later, have fewer children, and are more likely to get healthcare for themselves and their children.”

2017-2018: Katherine Mansourova and Junnah Mozaffar, Seniors

Katherine Mansourova and Junnah Mozaffar co-founded and grew an Amnesty International Club at Langley High School with the goal of introducing their classmates to important current human rights issues. In particular, they were moved by the suffering faced by the people of Myanmar as a result of their religious beliefs.  Their chapter holds lively discussions on topics such as discrimination and inequality of woman in Saudi Arabia, China, and Niger. Members sign up for Amnesty International text releases and respond with phone calls and letters to support efforts to end violations of human rights.

2018-2019: Sumaiya Haque, Senior

Sumaiya Haque developed a strong tie to her Bangladeshi heritage through stories from her immigrant grandmother. She observed that the country, its people, and its culture are little known in the U.S. Combining her passion for her heritage and skills in photography, she sought to foster appreciation and understanding of Bangladesh.

Sumaiya wanted young Bangladeshis to tell the world about their lives and surroundings by providing them with cameras. She approached Langley HS photography teacher, Amanda Archibald, and together they approached 100cameras, a non-profit organization offering the Snapshot Project platform for 10- to 18-year-olds in Bangladesh who have had traumatic experiences. The young photographers are encouraged to tell their stories through visual images, building self-confidence and establishing a role in their community. 100cameras provides a curriculum for teaching storytelling and technical photography, as well as cameras the young people may keep after completing the project. Photographs can be sold, with proceeds returned to the photographers’ communities for basic needs.

Sumaiya took the lead in organizing a team which included Amanda Archibald and three other Fairfax County students to conduct a two-week Snapshot Project in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The team raised $20,000 for the project through a “Go Fund Me” on the Internet and presentations to area Rotary Clubs. (Images from Snapshot Dhaka and a description of the project are featured on the 100cameras website.)

Hannah Wolff, Career Center Specialist at Langley, characterizes Sumaiya’s work as selfless and inspiring. Sumaiya, she says, “found a way to use her passion for art … to empower youth in a place where they have little opportunity to grow and experience self-worth.”

2019-2020: Daniel Mousavi, Senior

In his freshman and sophomore years, Daniel Mousavi worked with his younger brother, Aidan, to create a board game, Immigrant’s Nightmare, to focus attention on the requirements and challenges faced by people seeking immigration to the US. They quickly realized that immigration is a world-wide problem and responded by developing a companion iPhone game, Immigrant Challenge, which focuses on immigration in countries all over the world. More recently, they have created a prototype physical version of this second game.

Game development quickly became a family project. Aidan introduced the idea while working on a 4th grade project. Daniel then managed development of the iPhone-based game app and served as the entrepreneur, with the goal of producing and marketing the game to young people like themselves. Their mother provided encouragement and support for the creation of a website (www.immigrantsnightmare.com). The brothers have presented their project in an interview on NPR-WAMU and at the 2017 Games for Change Festival in New York City. See YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5My-RFJ6D0.

Daniel says, “Hailing from a family of Persian immigrants, I found the rhetoric of exclusion surrounding immigration painful. The game provides an outlet to combat xenophobia and to propose solutions for the problems at hand.”

Daniel and Aidan believe that their game will educate players to the process and struggles of legal and illegal immigration and contribute to a solution. They hope that any profits from the game will be used to help build vocational schools along the US-Mexico border, so that immigrants can be educated, seek visas, or stay in their own country. Daniel notes, “This would solve some of the problems and encourage diplomacy between the US and Mexico.”