On Monday, April 30, an inspiring 57 Upper School students were recognized with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for their remarkable commitment to community service. The award program’s goal, described by Erin Hamill, Director of Global Learning and Upper School Community Service, is to “encourage more people to live lives of service and celebrate the spirit of volunteerism.”
Specifically, the award recognizes individuals who have achieved a certain number of hours of service during a 12-month period or cumulative hours earned over the course of a lifetime. Awards are given to youth ages 14 and under who have completed 50 or more hours of volunteer service (50 – bronze, 75 – silver, 100 – gold) and to individuals 15 and older who have completed 100 or more hours (100 – bronze, 175 – silver, 250 – gold).
A remarkable, combined total of over 8,500 hours of service was achieved by our MICDS Upper School students, eight of who tallied over 250 hours individually. The recipients received their awards in a ceremony on Monday where Erin Hamill spoke and bronze recipient Palmer Mihalevich ’20 talked about what volunteering at the St. Louis Zoo meant to her. She shared, “Service is not about a number of hours or a requirement for high school. It means so much more for each and every person. Service not only teaches us the importance of giving back to this wonderful community we live in, but, more importantly, helps us discover our values and find out what in our life is most important and meaningful.”
Below is the list of our Presidential Volunteer Service Award recipients.
Gold:
Nischal Ada ‘20
Jenna Bernstein ‘21
Trisha Bhattacharyya ‘20
Nishanth Boppana ‘20
Catherine Cherrick ‘20
Aadhya Chilakala ‘21
Maura Court ‘18
Eleanor Goldman ‘19
Layth Hamed ‘19
Catherine Holt ‘19
Caley McCline ‘19
Bianca Sforza ‘19
Sophia Taylor ‘20
Andre Walia ‘21
Anna Grace Yuska ‘19
Silver:
Megana Atluri ‘20
Leila Awasthi ‘20
Ethan Beyzer ‘19
Claudia Cheng ‘20
Mahathi Gangavarapu ‘19
Abigail Lee ‘19
Alyssa Kalishman ‘21
Savannah Lesslie ‘18
Skyler Lesslie ‘20
Amy Li ‘21
Srujay Pandiri ‘19
Aakarsh Rai ‘20
David Shapshovich ‘19
Michael Shapshovich ‘20
Bronze:
Fatima Ali ‘19
Julia Amato ‘19
Nicita Anand ‘20
Matthew Curtis ‘20
Stanley Ding ‘20
Mehul Divecha ‘18
Lauren Ferguson ‘20
Kathryn Flemming ‘19
Jennifer Goldberg ‘19
Lauren Goldberg ‘20
Mary Gurley ‘19
Daniel Hochberg ‘19
Benjamin Hollander-Bodie ‘20
Helen Jiang ‘20
Erica Jones ‘18
Cassidy Kearins ‘19
Palmer Mihalevich ‘20
Nicole Niermann ‘20
Zionn Pearson ‘18
Ananya Radhakrishnan ‘21
Mereya Riopedre ‘20
Morgan Schafer ‘20
Lydia Smith ‘18
Hasani Spann ‘21
Jacob Tielking ‘19
Katherine Trowbridge ‘19
Abigail Werner ‘19
Ameera Zafar ‘19
Congratulations to our 57 students on their impressive, compassionate achievement and in upholding the MICDS mission in leading lives of purpose and service!