Mia P: Leading and Serving

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    Mia P. is a cheerful, kind, and service-oriented member of the junior class at Padua. She mentioned that the community and sisterhood of Padua were some of the things that attracted her to come. And, after transferring to Padua as a sophomore, Mia quickly made friends and established herself in service work. She is currently a community leader for the schools Students In Action homeroom. As a community leader, Mia helps to promote the atmosphere of service within the school. “I think doing service creates a better atmosphere for people” she said. Mia works hard to create an aspect of serving both in school and in her personal life.

    Mia said that she could not remember one specific thing that first got her interested in service but she did tell of a time in which she realized how many people needed someone to help them. “I was raised with the mentality to help others and to help those who need it,” she noted.  Being especially interested in language, literacy, and helping kids, Mia was able to quickly channel her interests. Mia spends the bulk of her time in service involved with the American Youth Literacy Foundation and helping at the Hockessin Library. When talking about her own service, Mia smiled and agreed, “I do a lot of service.” But she does much more than just service.

    Through a program called Youth Lit, Mia is currently going through a number of training hours as she works to become an established tutor for the American Youth Literacy Foundation. Youth Lit is an organization whose primary purpose is to promote literacy in children. For all of the volunteer tutors at Youth Lit, they must go through hours of online training, pass a pre-certification test, go through more online training, and then take a final certification test. Mia, who scored perfectly on her pre-certification test, is looking forward to what is to come. “I hope to be certified by April or May and established as a tutor by June.” As a long-time volunteer with the program, she said that she “really likes their goal of promoting literacy in underprivileged kids.” She is looking forward to all of her future work with Youth Lit.

    The most exciting thing according to Mia is going to be able to see all of the progress in the kids she will work with. Mia mentioned that she wants to see literacy be improved and definitely has plans to stay with the organization and see the differences that she can make. “From the kids having trouble reading to being able to read a whole story to me,” Mia smiled, “The most rewarding part will be to see the kids progress.” Mia is certainly making progress of her own as well, as she looks to establish herself as a tutor in the upcoming months and continue her work making a difference in the lives of those around her.