NC Youth of the Year: 2009

Kara Simpson: 2009 North Carolina Youth of the Year

The 2009 North Carolina Youth of the Year Celebration was held in Morehead City on March 27-28, 2009 with 31 candidates for consideration for the top honor. On Saturday, the judging process was completed and the 2009 NC Youth of the Year is Kara Simpson from Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Gaston.

Kara Simpson is 18 years old and has been a member of her Club since age 6. Over the years, she has provided and received many benefits during her time at the Club. She has been heavily involved in Club programs including Torch Club, teen court, senate page, technology camp, Camp Challenge, and oratorical contests. Not only has she been involved in programs, but has implemented her own program at the Club called PLAY (Promoting Literacy Achievement in Youth). The PLAY program helps young Club,members further their education in reading. Shes has accumulated many volunteer hours at the Club helping with reading, running programs and assisting freshman and sophomores to get on the right track for graduation.

Her community work is recognized by Mayor Jennifer Stultz who wrote that “Kara is currently serving her third year as a member of the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council and currently serves as President. This year the MYLC is focusing on drop out prevention by organizing Project Tassel. Kara has been an inspirational leader in this initiative by making a presentation to the Gaston County Board of Education to receive their unanimous support in the Project Tassel effort.”

Kara is ranked #1 in her class of 254 students with a GPA of 4.78 at Hunter Huss High School in Gastonia, North Carolina. She is a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award and serves as Instructor Chairperson of the local chapter of the Red Cross. She was selected to attend Summer Ventures in Science and Mathematics and is the school’s Time Warner Cable Star Student. As a cheerleader-athlete, Kara is also the school’s nominee for the Wendy’s High School Heisman Award. She has been inducted into the Beta Club, National Honor Society and the National Technical Honor Society. She holds a Certificate for INternational Baccalaureate Organization Middle Years Programme (IMBYP) and held the highest GPA in her IMBYP cohort. Kara was also selected by her peers as President of the Student Government Association and was crowned Miss Hunter Huss 2006 and Hunter Huss Carolinas’ Carrousel 2008. Her academic achievements were recently recognized when she was selected as a finalist for the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kara ended one of her essays for the Youth of the Year competition: “The Boys & Girls Club has been the sources of many firsts in my life: first hockey game, first time building a computer, first experience with cheerleading, and so many more. If I were to name all the things that the Club has done for me, I wouldn’t be able to fit everything into 24 hours. I am truly honored, inspired and blessed to be able to affiliate myself with such an organization.” Kara currently plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she will major in biology. She then plans to complete medical school and achieve her ultimate goal of becoming a Pediatric Oncologist. The first runner-up for the 2009 Youth of the Year is Timothy Nails with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County, and second runner-up is Connecia Brown with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sanford/Lee County.