Class of 2026

I organized and led a free youth soccer clinic with my 2 fellow girls soccer captains for players in the Natick community who were interested in improving their skills. The clinic was open to all youth players and focused on creating a fun and engaging environment where younger athletes could learn from experienced players. We planned and ran a variety of drills, small-sided games, and activities that emphasized teamwork and development. Our goal was to give back to the local soccer community while helping young players gain new techniques.

For my lead project, I ran an activity, called “Desert Island Discs” at a long-term care facility, NewBridge on the Charles, that I spend a lot of time volunteering at. My activity focused on music, and the effect it can have on memory impaired, immobile, and nonverbal patients. For this activity, I had to coordinate with the activity coordinator at the facility, work with another volunteer to ensure the program runs smoothly, and forge deep connections with the patients. Overall, this project was very successful as I was able to form bonds with patients, help them connect with music they love, and learn a lot about music effect on cognition. 

For my lead project, I organized a trash pickup on Glen Street in South Natick. I chose this lead project because I noticed the amount of trash on the street, and thought that cleaning it up could help the environment. Some friends and I collected supplies, and picked up trash for five hours, collecting 3 trash bags worth of litter. I hope that my lead project will allow the environment of South Natick to be cleaner and more beautiful in the coming spring. 

For my lead project, I organized a group of people to remove garlic mustard, a highly invasive plant, from the local forest. We were able to fill six large garbage bags with plants and clear a large section of the trail. Elementary school students from my neighborhood use this path everyday during the school year to walk to Lilja, so removing these overgrown weeds makes it easier to navigate. This also will help to encourage the native plants to grow back now that they aren’t being pressured out for resources and overall create a more healthy ecosystem.

I worked with a fellow student, Sophie Wojick, to collect food donations for local food pantries. I spent time calling and doing research on the most needed items during this time of year. I set up a time for our stand outside of Roche Brothers and we sat outside and greeted shoppers explaining our drive and its importance. Many local families found items inside that matched the needs of the food pantry and donated them for our collection. Any donations we received, we used to go inside and purchase the rest of our list to donate. In total, we spent 5 hours sitting outside of Roche Brothers and collected a total of over 700 pounds of dried goods, canned goods, diapers, personal hygiene items, and more. This project was incredibly rewarding to help out our community, as well as those who help families make ends meet. The goods were split in half and donated to A Place to Turn: Natick, as well as the Natick Food Pantry, run by the Natick Service Council.

For my lead project, I filmed and edited a Unified Basketball video for students on the team and anyone considering joining. Over the course of three months, I attended the majority of the Unified Basketball games and practices with my camera to film the athletes and interview them about their experiences. After gathering the footage, I edited together hundreds of clips to create an engaging video that highlights the season and gives the athletes and participants the opportunity to reflect upon it. The project was successful and was viewed as a thoughtful recap of the season, shown during the sports banquet. The video is planned to be linked on the club’s form for students to watch next season, encouraging them to get inspired and sign up.

For my lead project, I designed and created a lesson for 6th and 7th grade students at Temple Israel of Natick with the goal of informing them about antisemitism around the world and within their community. I created discussion questions tied with videos which prompted the students to ask meaningful questions and think more deeply about what they were actually learning. This was a really fun experience for me to meet my lead hour requirements. From this experience, I learned how to be more responsible, a better leader, and I learned how to explain things differently for all different ages.

My lead project was to plan out and organize my Eagle Scout project, which is going to be completed later on, when the weather gets warmer. The project included many meetings with representatives from many different groups, my BSA troop, the church I am working with, and the town, to figure out what can be completed. The project is now ready to begin working on once the ground is thawed and can be dug into, which is a huge hurdle in actually completing the final project. The future of the project is now to wait a bit and then plant new bushes and shrubs at the front of my church to beautify the whole area and make the space better for the church goers, and the preschoolers that use the space.

For my National Honor Society lead project, I co-planned and executed a dance party fundraiser through an organization called Compassionate Care ALS, which supports and provides resources for families struggling with ALS. My friend and I worked together organizing logistics, including planning the event details, coordinating materials, and communicating with venue staff. We also worked hard to set up the event venue, collect donations at the front door, and ensure that everyone had a fun and welcoming experience throughout the night. The event included karaoke, games, and a variety of food and drinks. Overall, the fundraiser was a huge success, raising approximately $1,000 to support individuals and families living with ALS. Through this event we were able to spread awareness about ALS and bring our community together for a meaningful and impactful cause.

Throughout my time serving as the lead mentor for the Wilson Middle School Student Athlete Mentorship (SAM) program, the project was successful and impactful on the mentees. I was able to take on this leadership role by helping to organize meetings, support recruitment efforts for future years, and guide important and meaningful discussions with the mentees. During our meetings, I led activities focused on preparing the mentees for high school, including lessons on time management, effective study techniques, course selection, and navigating social pressure. I also helped create a safe and supportive environment where each mentee felt comfortable asking questions and sharing their thoughts about the transition to high school. In addition to these important lessons I organized at each meeting, I also planned fun and engaging activities/games in order to keep the sessions balanced and interactive. Overall, I accomplished my goal of fostering confidence and preparedness in the mentees, while also strengthening my own leadership and communication skills.

For my lead project, I was a teacher assistant at a Chinese School for 5-6 year olds where I made worksheets and lesson plans. I chose to do this because I wanted to assist the students with their learning experience. I communicated with the teacher to make sure I taught them the correct material and improvised if anything didn’t go to plan. The project mostly went as intended and smoothly, and I was able to form a good relationship with the teacher and students. 

My lead project was planning and organizing the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony with 3 of my peers. We bought cake, decorations, snacks, and refreshments and set up the cafeteria. I chose to do this for my lead project because I wanted to help create a great induction experience and because I enjoy decorating for events. Organizing this event involved having meetings to plan, shopping for decorations and food, and communicating with faculty members, custodial staff, light and sound volunteers, and Ms. Chakraborty and Ms. St Jean. Overall, the induction ceremony went well and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with everyone who helped to make this event possible!

Using customink, I designed Natick Wrestling Crewnecks to sell to the team and fundraise for the program. In addition to designing, I marketed the crewnecks, collected money, and distributed them to the team. I also navigated challenges like satisfying team input on designs, working with custom ink workers to add more crewnecks to an already placed order, and minimizing the price of each crewneck. Overall, I sold 33 crewnecks and raised $350 for the program.

For my lead project I worked with two other National Honor Society members, Cailyn Deltufo and Tessa Van Voorhis, to fundraise for an animal charity. After some research, we chose the Friends of Animals charity because it is reliable and it benefits a cause that we all care deeply about. It is an international, non-profit organization that has been dedicated to advocating for animal rights, helping domestic animals escape cruelty, and helping endangered wildlife reestablish safe habitats since 1957. We created advertisements and online posts asking for any donations that people were willing to make. This helped to ensure that we were reaching a broader, wider audience and raising even more donations. This also helped us spread information on a larger scale and hopefully raise awareness on the topic. After that I went around on my own to personally inform people on the cause and ask them if they would be willing to donate. I ended up raising a total of 173 dollars on my own and then combined my money with the other two members to collectively donate 473 dollars to the Friends of Animals charity. 

For my lead project I led fall captains practices for prospective NHS baseball athletes. These captains practices were new this year as traditionally the only baseball captains practices are indoors in the winter. The ability to have these outdoor captains practices allowed players of all ages to compete with the returning varsity players and better their skills. We believe that these allowed every player to get in extra practice and improve. I chose this project because I really care about the Natick baseball program and wanted to give everyone a chance to improve, not only the returning varsity players. I thought that it went really well. Everyone who came had a great time and it garnered interest in the program. Furthermore, there is a payment required for the indoor captains practices, but we were able to do these free of charge. In the future I really hope the captains of the following years have these, unfortunately the main high school field was under construction so we had to go to Wilson, but that should not be an issue in the coming years. 

My lead project was organizing a Light Fight to help raise money for the Natick Service Council. Before the Light Fight, I created a flyer and ballot that I distributed to 200 houses in my neighborhood. The Light Fight was very successful with around twenty-five families participating and eighteen houses being voted on. A total of $875 was raised through donations and one family generously offered to increase that amount, bringing the total to $1,588 donated to the Natick Service Council. During the Light Fight, about 50 neighbors gathered to enjoy live music and come together as a community to celebrate the season. I am so grateful for the neighborhood and proud that we were able to raise so much money that will help Natick families in need.

For my lead project, I organized a craft day where volunteers made bracelets and cards for seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia. I provided all the materials and led the activity, creating a positive and creative environment. The following week, we visited the nursing home to deliver the gifts, and seeing their reactions while spending time with them was a memorable experience. I chose this project because I believe it is important to spread kindness and remind people that they are loved and never forgotten. Overall, the project went well  and was successfully accomplished!

For my lead project, I organized a trash pick-up of Henry S. Hunnewell Town Forest.  Starting bright and early on a Saturday morning, we cleaned up all the pieces of trash we found scattered around the town forest.  As we walked around the trails, we realised just how much trash is constantly left behind by people. Because of this, my project only made a small dent in cleaning up forests in Natick and Massachusetts, but it was a necessary step in the right direction.  In the end, we were able to fill up many bags of trash and left with a feeling of accomplishment and pride as we helped make a more eco-friendly environment in Natick.

For my lead project, I created a lesson on how to present yourself to others by sharing the character traits that make you, you. I shared this lesson with the Formosan Association of Student Cultural Ambassadors (FASCA), a group that promotes Taiwanese culture and acts as a liaison between youth and Taiwan in Massachusetts. In the lesson, I had the youth-ambassadors self reflect and identify key characteristics and experiences that demonstrate their character. This helped the ambassadors understand themselves better and by understanding their story, they are able to share their story as well as other stories they care about. Overall this project was successful as the ambassadors responded with positive feedback on the insights they discovered about themselves. We often get asked, "tell us about yourself", but it is hard to define ourselves with just a few words. While we may never be able to fully answer that question, I was glad to be able to give the ambassadors the tools to have them attempt to answer the questions for themselves.

For my lead project, I organized a local book drive within my community and donated the books collected to the Morse Institute Library. I chose to conduct this project in order to increase the variety of books that can be found in the library, teach others to utilize local libraries to borrow books for free instead of purchasing them and using them once, and ensuring that books that are unused don't end up in landfills. I reached out to peers, family, and various individuals in the Natick community through word of mouth. Overall, I deemed this project as successful because I was able to donate 40+ books to the library and give back to my community whilst connecting with many people.

My lead project was to represent National Honors Society at Step-up night, get incoming freshman interested in the organization, and give them all of the important information that pertains to applying to and participating in National Honors Society. I chose to do this for my lead project because I wanted to help promote National Honors Society because I believe in what the organization aims to accomplish and I wanted to spread the message and opportunities with incoming freshman who might be interested. This project got incoming Freshman interested in this organization and encouraged them to participate in community service. I worked with my partner to organize the event. I made a poster with all of the important information as well as a QR code that leads to the National Honors Society website. I bought candy and a bowl for the incoming Freshman and their families. I also gave out information verbally during the event, and sent a lengthy and detailed information email after the event to those who were interested and provided their emails. I worked with Sofiia Kazyrid, Mrs. St. Jean, and Mrs. Marino to conduct this event. The event went very well. More people than I expected signed up for the informational email, and demonstrated interest in person about National Honors Society. If I were to do this again, I would prepare some talking points to say to the students and their families, as I struggled more than I expected to get my thoughts out in an efficient and persuasive manner. Other than that, I would not change anything. 

For my Lead Project, I partnered with a friend to plan and execute a dance party and karaoke fundraiser benefiting Compassionate Care ALS, an organization dedicated to supporting families navigating the challenges of ALS. Together, we built a website for advertising and ticket sales, designed a flyer, and spread the word through social media. I also worked with the venue to coordinate logistics. The fundraiser exceeded our expectations, and I am so proud that we were able to raise around $1,000 for such a meaningful cause. Being able to give back to an organization that uplifts families during difficult times was truly one of the most rewarding experiences of this project. 

I, along with a friend, organized and led a community wide book drive to support the Morse Institute Library, dedicating approximately 9 hours to planning, collecting, and delivering donations. I began by reaching out to neighbors, members from my local church, family, and friends to request gently used books, and then coordinated accessible pickups and drop-offs to make the donations possible. I spent several hours driving throughout my area to collect books and ensure they were in the appropriate condition to be donated before delivering them to the library. Through this project, I was able to contribute a meaningful number of books that will be used by children and families in my community. This experience helped reinforce how essential reading and access to books is for literacy, education, and personal development. Reading not only builds foundational academic skills, but also encourages imagination, curiosity, and lifelong learning. In addition, I was able to develop stronger organizational and leadership skills by managing logistics, communicating with donors, and following through on the project, from start to finish. I learned that even a relatively small and local effort can have a real and lasting impact, and taking initiative helps to create opportunities for others. 

For my lead project, I partnered with Isla Sands and Ellie Keller to run a bake sale outside of Stop and Shop to raise money for A Place To Turn. We set up outside of Stop and Shop at 10am and were there until 2pm, over the course of those hours we were able to make almost $700. With that money, we bought what was most needed on A Place To Turn’s website. This project included contacting and coordinating with A Place To Turn to schedule a day to bring in donations, buying supplies for the bake sale signs, buying ingredients to make various treats, and shopping for all immediate needs from their website. Overall, this project was very successful and I am grateful that I was able to do my part and help others.

For my Lead project, I worked with members of Serve Natick to run a table at the Natick Organic Farm's annual Pancake dinner. I worked to connect and interact with the community in a number of different ways which echos the Serve Natick mission. This project helped me inform the community about involvement and support for volunteering opportunities, which I have used in the past. I was helped by the Serve Natick organization. I think overall it went well and it was a lot of fun to connect with different people. 

For my lead project I ran fall captains clinics for the whole baseball program. I chose to do this as my lead because I wanted to begin to connect with the younger kids in the program before the season got started, and for the returning players to have a specific time to work during a busy fall time period. I prepared by making practice plans for the practice with help from my other Captain Alex Jacques. I think they went really well and I encourage the future captains to do the same thing.

For my lead project, I coached and ran drills for a 12U softball team. I spent time putting together and setting up high school level drills to both help them learn and encourage them to continue to play throughout middle and high school. I found that the younger girls really enjoyed having an older player around and took a lot of inspiration from me to do their best. I had to communicate with the other coaches of the team to figure out when I could take the players, and I adapted to the team’s learning style to help them be the most successful.

I did the lead project with Katie McMahon and Liesl Neidemeyer who are the other 2 captains on the softball team. Our lead project is a softball clinic at the Natick High School field. On November 2nd on Sunday. Girls from grades 3rd-5th and 6th-8th grade. Our main focus of the clinic was to introduce the younger girls to the high school softball program and get them excited and interested in sticking with the sport and hopefully playing at the high school level. We are helping girls improve and develop all their softball skills by working on hitting, infield work, outfield work and base running. In addition to the clinic time, we also spent time planning for the program. We all got together with Coach Brenna planning the time and dates of the clinic, marketing the clinic to parents and kids to see. We made a video to promote the clinic and share on social media. That video we made was published on Natick Little League instagram and we also created a social media post to put on our own instagram page giving time, date, ages, and location. 

For my lead project me and two peers got together to donate to a charity for animals. Alexandra Miller, Tessa Van Voorhis and I all got together to create posters to inform people and ask for donations from people. First, we got together to research and select a charity to donate to. We chose the Friends of Animals charity which is an international nonprofit organization not only because it's reliable but it also works to free animals from cruelty. Their goal is to get rid of animal exploitation by using wildlife programs and laws to prevent this. This is just one of the many things this charity does in order to keep animals safe, and that is why we supported and raised money for them. The donations were individually raised but we created the posters and online advertisements together. I individually raised $150 from my online advertisement and from informing people in person. This project was overall successful because in total we pooled our money to donate $473 to the Friends of Animals charity. This benefitted the community by allowing us to educate more people and allow for more animals to be freed from cruelty.

My project was leading a discussion about time management for high school student athletes. I chose this topic because it is something I have experience with that middle schoolers do not yet. I was able to help the younger athletes understand how to better manage their time and make them more knowledgeable before going into high school. I prepared a slideshow with notes for the group of students before I led discussions. I used the help of Mrs. Waldron at Wilson Middle School to help me, and I thought it went great.

As a co-founder of ServeMA, previously ServeNatick, I have many responsibilities in the running of the organization. My official title of CFO puts me in charge of the finances, where I have to obtain sponsors and track spending. However one specific responsibility that I share with all of the co-founders of ServeMA, is the organization of the Massachusetts Impact Collaborative. My lead project is this event as it required an immense amount of effort in planning and organizing months ahead of the event itself. Specifically I had to attend meetings to plan out logistics where it was my job to secure sponsors and track the budget. In addition we had to work together as a team to secure speakers for the event. This provided quite a significant challenge as our theme for the event was community in sports and we wished to acquire professional athletes as speakers. After multiple meetings, numerous speaker prospects which fell through, and last minute cancellations, the day of the event arrived. The team and I set up the event multiple hours before it started. We had to ensure there were adequate snacks and beverages for the audience and speakers alike. In addition we had to coordinate with experts in technology so we could use the schools audio and visual equipment. After all of this, we began the event. The event, which was a ted ed style presentation, went really well. I had to speak on behalf of ServeMA, and since public speaking is unfortunately not one of my strong suits, it had a few stutters, but in the end the event went amazingly and I am very proud of what the team accomplished.

My lead project was raising money for the Tloma Primary School in Tanzania. Over the summer my family and I visited the school during a trip. I felt compelled to raise money to provide students there with the proper supplies. I set up an online fundraiser, emailed friends and family, and put letters in neighbors mailboxes. I raised $625 for school supplies and coordinated the drop off of the supplies to the school. Considering education is a human right, I'm glad I was able to contribute to bettering these students' lives. 

For my National Honor Society lead project, I developed and led an introductory programming workshop tailored for oncoming and new high school students. My mission was twofold: to spark a passion for STEM learning and provide in-depth coding instruction to students who might not otherwise have access to a formal computer science class. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school a dedicated group of students met up and observed my prepared slideshow presentation then attempted a unit project based on the lesson in the slideshow. To demonstrate their learning, students completed a cumulative project, which was to design and implement an airport management software. We ended up getting through all of the major topics a standard introductory class will cover, including classes and inheritance. 

For my lead project, I organized a local food drive in my neighborhood and my community to donate non-perishable food items to Temple Beth Eloheim. My role was to inform community members of my goal and what I was setting out to do, collect items from them that would be donated, then transport the items to TBE. I reached out to people over email and by word of mouth to explain what I would be asking for them to donate. I also took charge of organizing the donated items. I chose to do this as my lead project because I have really enjoyed previous volunteer work at TBE and I knew how many people benefit from their food pantry and donations. Ultimately, I feel as though my lead project was a success because I was able to not only donate food to those in need but also was able to spread knowledge of a local place to donate.

For my lead project, I helped plan and organize the Justin Bailey Food Drive alongside Emma and Will Fair. To make the project successful, we focused on planning the steps needed and making sure everyone understood their roles. The first step was choosing a date for the food drive. We selected February 4, 2026. Because the event was organized through the Natick Boys and Girls hockey program, we scheduled it on a day when both teams had home games. This helped maximize the number of people attending and increased the chances of receiving more donations. After choosing the date, we worked on spreading the word. We created flyers, emails, and social media posts to help get the word out to the community and encourage people to donate. On the day of the food drive, we arrived early to set up donation boxes, tables, and posters. After both games, we collected all the donations, filling four cars with food and other non-perishable items, which we then delivered to the pantry. In total, we collected over four thousand dollars worth of food and supplies. A few days later, on February 9, both the girls and boys varsity hockey teams gathered at the Natick Food Pantry to help sort and organize the items that had been donated. Overall, the Justin Bailey Food Drive was a great success. Through teamwork, planning, and community support, we were able to collect a large amount of food to help families in need.

For my lead project, I organized and ran the Milestone Church booth for Natick Days. This included overseeing the schedules of all the volunteers who helped run the stall over the course of the day, assigning them roles, guiding them through the operation of the different stations, and adjusting timetables in accordance with attendance. I was also in charge of keeping track of inventory, limiting how much we gave out to make sure our stock lasted the whole event and handling cleanup once the event ended. I chose this as my lead project as it gave me the opportunity to help my Church community, while making a positive impact on the wider Natick community through our interactions with attendants and our distribution of prizes and gifts. Everything ran smoothly over the day, and we had more than enough volunteers to help out and keep wait times down in all but face painting. In future years, I would look to reach out to more artists to participate in face painting, as the lines for it tended to get rather long.  All in all though, a great event and a wonderful memory.

My lead project was called “Student Athlete Mentoring.” It is a mentorship group at Wilson Middle School for 7th and 8th graders, run by Mrs. Waldron. I was selected as one of three captains out of about 25 juniors and seniors, which was a role that came with a lot of responsibility. During our meetings, I worked closely with students to discuss their grades, behavior, and overall school performance. We also talked about challenges they were facing both in and out of school. As mentors, our goal was to guide these students toward maturity by emphasizing respect, accountability, and strong academic habits. We encouraged them to take pride in their work and make positive decisions. A big focus of the program was showing them that being a student athlete is not just about playing sports. We stressed that success in the classroom is just as important as success on the field, and that both go hand in hand in shaping their future.

During the Natick Days lead project, me and my co-captain, Peter McDonough, introduced the Natick Boys Tennis Team into Natick Days for the first time. To do so, we created a game and designed posters as well as collecting materials to bring to Natick Days. As a result, attendees exchanged tickets to play the game and we later traded those tickets for money. We were able to raise a lot of money for the team this upcoming season that will go towards uniforms for every member of the team, and participated in community events.

For my lead project, I ran a bake sale for Blood Cancer United at Stop&Shop. I was there for four hours and I ended up raising $630. This money will go towards research, patient and family support, and advocacy for all blood cancer patients including Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Hodgkin's Disease. For the project, I collaborated with Stop&Shop to set up a time to fundraise, got many friends and family members to help me bake, created posters and the set-up, and arranged with BCU to submit the money to them. Overall, the project was super successful and I feel proud that I was able to raise money for a cause I care about and an organization I love, that I know will truly make a big difference.

For my National Honor Society lead service project, I volunteered with the Active Kids + Minds program at Memorial School in Natick, which promotes physical activity before the school day begins. The program, inspired by Dr. John Ratey’s research in the book Spark, focused on helping students improve focus and build healthy habits through morning exercise. Having participated in the program when I was younger, I used my experience to serve as a positive role model for elementary students. I led groups of K–4 students in 40-minute movement sessions twice a week and helped guide them through structured, age-appropriate activities. In addition to the regular curriculum, I created and implemented a bodyweight workout program to encourage early fitness and healthy routines. My goal was to introduce more intentional exercise while keeping the sessions fun and engaging. Through this project, I helped students become more active before school and supported their overall focus and well-being.

I hand wrote 40+ thank you cards for different places of service around Natick, including the Fire Station, the Police Station, and the Senior Center. I then drove around dropping them to the front desk, and explained my reason for dropping them. This experience was overall very rewarding, and I enjoyed taking time to make the cards even if it was tedious or time consuming

My lead project was a bake sale, focused on selling various baked goods to raise money for National Honors Society. I chose this as my lead project because I had never done a bake sale before and wanted to see how it was. This was done to lower the price of the NHS stoles. Working with fellow classmates, we communicated with other members for donations, filed for fundraiser time slots and gathered the proper materials needed. Overall it was an exciting experience, and in the future I would choose to host the bake sale in the morning, rather than after school. 

For my lead project, I chose to set up a bake sale at the Natick Farmer’s Market with all proceeds going to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA).  The goal, aside from raising money to support NEDA’s goal of early treatment intervention, was to raise community awareness about the free online recovery resources that the organization offers.  To prepare for the fundraiser, I first ensured that we had a table booked at the market and a food permit.  I did a bit of research so that I could answer any questions that came up about the organization, baked all of the products the night before the fundraiser, and made signs.  Overall, the bake sale was very successful; many of the attendees were very happy to contribute to the cause and to learn more about NEDA and how we can work on expanding eating disorder awareness in Natick.  In the future, I would like to get even more people involved (I had one volunteer—Dhwani) to be able to publicize the event further and potentially run similar sales more consistently.

For my lead project, I organized a clothing drive at my gym (Massachusetts Elite Gymnastics Academy) where all donations went to Cradles to Crayons. I had the drive for about a month, and throughout that time I was able to collect three large boxes of donatable clothing and items. In order to make this a successful drive, I created flyers to share on social media, a poster to have inside the gym, and left a decorated box with a sign near the door. I chose to do this for my lead project, because especially in colder weather, it is extremely important that every kid has access to the clothing they need. With donating such a large amount of children's clothing, this drive was able to give many kids access to clothing that they need but might not have otherwise had. In the future, the only thing I might do differently is leaving it out for longer. The drive was very successful and I think if I put more boxes out, I would’ve been able to get and donate even more clothes.

For my lead project I organized a group of people to go pick up trash on the rail trail. The rail trail is something that is utilized by many people especially in Natick and I thought what better way than to help clean the rail trail and keep it looking new. I got together a group of students to come along with me to pick up trash on the trail. I gave each person including myself a trash bag and a pair of gloves, and we set off going to different parts of the rail trail picking up trash and keeping the trail clean. In total from just picking up trash on the trail, we collected 7 whole bags of trash. 

For my lead project, I organized and led a group of people, mostly friends, to go do a trash clean up. We went to the Pegan Cove park near Lake Cochituate and walked the trails there and picked  up all the trash we saw. I chose this project because I really like the outdoors and being able to pick up all this trash to keep the animals safe from eating the trash means a lot to me. I organized all this by gathering some friends and friends of theirs and some of their parents who wanted to help out and choose a warm day to do this where we all met and started picking up trash. We were able to probably save a bunch of animals from this due to the amount of trash we cleaned up near the waterfront and trash on the ground. Overall this project was very successful as we picked up a bunch of trash and were probably saving a bunch of animals. 

My lead project went really well, and I enjoyed working with the younger athletes. I led discussions and presentations about behavior, respecting coaches, and being a good teammate. I tried to make it engaging so they felt comfortable participating and asking questions. I also checked in with them about school and how they were doing overall. It was a great experience and I feel like I helped them understand that being part of a team is about more than just playing. Participating in this also helped me grow as a leader and improve my presentation skills.

My lead project was to lead a 4-day fundraising swim clinic run by high school team captains and volunteers. I chose to do this because I have always been involved with swimming and it is also a significant team fundraiser for things like our banquet. This project helped younger children learn how to swim more safely and correctly. We organized pool time at Longfellow Natick and made a curriculum. I advertised the clinic to the public at physical locations and also had it posted on Facebook. I also asked others to do the same along with the help of the Longfellow aquatics department. We also decided upon a loose curriculum that could be adapted to swimmers of different levels and ages. Before the first session, I estimated the swimmer's abilities based on their parents’ emails, and adjusted accordingly during the session. I was helped by other swim team members and team captains, as well as my mother and the staff of the Longfellow Aquatics department. It went very well, with many parents expressing their appreciation for our help and enthusiasm. In the future, it may be beneficial to advertise the clinic earlier in order to get more sign-ups.

Our project went well. We organized a sock drive to run from Sunday, March 22, through Palm Sunday, which fell on March 29 this year (2026). We coordinated with Amanda Grant-Rose, Director of Stewardship and Community Engagement at Capuchin Mobile Ministries (CCM) to determine CCM’s needs, created fliers, bought bins, and coordinated with the Natick Catholic Community Confirmation Coordinator, Dawn Sullivan, to have the bins placed at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Natick and at St. Linus Catholic Church in Natick. CCM prioritized inexpensive, white tube socks, as many homeless people do not have access to laundry services; the white color of the socks shows dirt, indicating when the socks are soiled and need to be thrown away and replaced. This was a profound realization, reminding me that I am lucky to have access to basic necessities such as clean clothes when some less than twenty miles from me do not. On March 30, the day after Palm Sunday, we dropped the socks off to CCM at the St. Francis of Assisi Friary in Jamaica Plain. CCM will give the socks to the homeless community in the Boston area. In total, we collected 86 pairs of socks.

My lead project was fundraising for the program Birthday Wishes. This is “non profit dedicated to empowering caregivers to throw a birthday party at their shelter for their child.” I chose this for my project because I truly feel everyone should be able to celebrate a special time in their life even if that means they are homeless. Even something small can make a huge impact and bring a smile to someone’s face. I think everyone deserves to feel loved and through this program that is possible. This fulfilled the needs in my community by giving back and offering support. It also fulfilled the needs by spreading awareness to everyone in my community hoping people will continue what I was able to do. I prepared for this by researching what I could do to give back and when I found out that shelters were a great place to do that which would have a lasting impact on individuals, I began looking for a fundraising program near me that I could contribute to. I then found Birthday Wishes and immediately started making a fundraiser page. My grandma was a huge help in this whole process as well as the Birthday Wishes program in general. They helped me get started and set myself up for success. Overall this process went super well and I was able to raise enough money for every birthday celebration at a small shelter for one month! Something I would have done differently was start this process earlier in my high school experience so that it could have been more impactful on the spreading awareness aspect throughout my community or maybe even reach outside the community.

My lead project was organizing cake donations and running the booth at Natick Days in order to fundraise for National Honor Society. I chose to do this project as I wanted to be able to connect with other people at Natick Days and I thought it would be a new opportunity to get further involved with the organization beyond the meetings. I worked alongside Ronny Solomon and Sandra Kintu and we met prior to the event in order to plan when cakes would be delivered and how to run the event day off. We worked alongside Ms. St. Jean, who informed us of our responsibilities in preparation for Natick Days, which included attending meetings and sending emails to other National Honor Society members to bring their cakes. I think this project went very well, as I was able to connect with a lot of different people, both in the National Honor Society and just within the Natick community in general, and it was successful as we raised over $1000. Additionally, the cake drop offs went smoothly and I was glad that other members were able to donate and help support the organization. Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project. 

For my lead project, I organized the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony for Natick in a team with three other peers. I wanted to take this opportunity to do something for the school community both because it let me celebrate the students who worked hard to make it into NHS, and because I believed I could do a good job at organizing events meticulously. Organizing this ceremony allowed for my peers to experience a successful induction into NHS. To prepare, my fellow organizers and I planned the food, decoration, and music needs as well as communicating with various people in the community to coordinate lights, sound, and tables. I believe the ceremony was successful and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the school community to make it happen!

For my lead project, I developed and taught a self defense workshop for middle school students in a Guatemalan village I was staying in. Before the trip, I planned out the lesson, deciding what activities were age appropriate and interesting. I packed materials and supplies in my bag and brought them down as well. While at the middle school, I got to teach a workshop to 7th, 8th and 9th graders, explaining directions through a translator and conducting a self-defense game. This was an amazing opportunity for me to exercise some of my teaching skills and expose these students to something new. Overall, they had a blast and learned a lot about how to carry themselves through the world. 

For my leadership project, I taught three students how to play Dungeons and Dragons, and I ran the beginning of a campaign for practice. I chose to focus on a community based project because with the recent increase in popularity of the game from the show Stranger Things, Dungeons and Dragons has become a great way to make friends and build relationships. I was in charge of helping with character creation and what goes into a well written character, initiating the four meetings, purchasing materials, and creating a campaign so they would learn using real time examples. I feel that the lessons were very successful because by the last session, the players were able to understand and interact with their character sheet without help from me, had incredibly witty and character driven roleplay moments, and held their own in combat. Now that these players know the rules and what truly makes this game magical, they can take these skills to play Dungeons and Dragons in college and beyond as a way to bond and share this wonderful experience with others. 

I organized a winter gear clothing drive at Temple Beth Elohim to support local families in need of warm clothes to get through the winter. I collected over 200 items including jackets, hats & mittens, boots, scarves, sweaters, and more. I donated the items to the organization Cradles to Crayons who was working to get essentials to as many families as possible prior to the harsh weather conditions. I am grateful for the opportunity that this project gave me to make an impact on my community. 

For my lead project, I organized a woodwind quintet to perform at the Natick Farmers Market. I guided our rehearsal process and communicated with the organizer of the Natick Farmers Market to provide background music for the vendors at the January 17th indoor market. I chose this as my lead project to share chamber music to the Natick community. This project was successful, and the market vendors appreciated the music and accompaniment! Now, high school musicians can continue to be in communication with the Farmers Market organizer to bring music in future years.

For my lead project, I organized a band, choir and orchestra clothing drive. I chose to do this project because it was an opportunity to assist a non-profit organization in developing a program for collecting items that can be carried forward. For this I was in contact with the Natick Parent Music Association. I created a flyer, communicated with the Natick High School, Wilson and Kennedy Middle Schools' band and choir teachers, dropped off bins and flyers to each school, and then organized received inventory. Overall it was a successful jumpstart to something that the PMA plans to continue in the future!

My lead project was helping ServeMA promote and run their yearly Collaborative Event. In order to prepare for this event, I made handout flyers which would be handed out at other community events such as the Pancake Breakfast which took place at Memorial Elementary School two weeks prior. At the actual collaborative event, I got there early and helped organize and set up the event to make it run smoothly for the people speaking. I also greeted guests, answered questions, and informed people of our community about the event and ServeMA’s goal. I worked independently on most of this, but was assisted the day of the event by a few of my peers in my grade also trying to help the event run smoothly. I chose this as my lead project because I wanted to become more involved with Serve Natick and help promote their message of teaching and inspiring others by bringing communities and organizations together. This project helped people in my community become aware of issues happening around and organizations that work with Serve to combat these issues.

My lead project was working with the Natick Boy’s Volleyball team to create a practice/skills volleyball event for both students in the Natick Girl’s and Boy’s Volleyball programs, and other students in Natick or surrounding towns interested in volleyball, learning, or practicing with higher level players. I chose this because I think when I was an underclassman and needed more reps or wanted to find a time to practice offseason, there weren't opportunities to do so. This gave players an opportunity to play with other levels, genders, and skills, to prepare for tryouts or get in practice off season. I spent the week and a half leading up to our project, communicating, emailing, posting, and inviting underclassmen as well as current Natick and non-Natick players. The gym date was 3/14 and we went in early to set up the table, gather enough volleyballs for all players, as well as set up the net and court area. After our three hour window, we will stay to break down the net, table, and clean up. I worked with the current captain of NBVB, and we think it was a success!

The Justin Bailey Food Drive was very successful. We created flyers, where we hung them up at the rink and delivered them to our neighborhood to spread the word. We also sent emails out to the Natick Comets program and the High School Hockey programs to spread the word, and posted it all over social media. The night of the food drive, we hung up a poster, and set up bins for all the donations. After both games concluded, we filled up multiple cars to bring all the donations to the Natick Service Council. Then, both the Girls and Boys Varsity Hockey teams went to the Service council to help sort and put all the food away in the pantry. 

For my lead project, I organized a goalie clinic to help out and teach goalies in Natick to get ready for playoffs. I chose this project because I really enjoy helping people learn and succeed. One of my biggest passions has always been hockey so it's great I get to help the community by doing something I love. The practice was all planned and set up with the help of Coach Vickery. It consisted of goalies of all ages and skill levels. Goalies learned new techniques, blocked a bunch of shots, but most importantly had an amazing time at this event. All the goalies learned something new and met a new friend. Overall, this project was very successful and I'm very grateful that everybody who participated had something to take away and had a good time.

For my lead project I was responsible for running tour guides during step-up night at the high school. I wanted to have this for my lead project because I was able to show the incoming freshman and their families how great of a community and school we have here at Natick High. In preparation for step-up night I had to recruit tour guides while coming up with a plan of how tours during step-up night would be run. I was also responsible for informing and organizing the tour guides during step-up night. Although there was a little shortage of tour guides, I think step-up night went well and with the guidance of Ms. Dalton-Thomas, I was successfully able to run tours and organize tour guides while keeping things in an orderly manner. In the future I would urge other organizers to try to recruit more tour guides and try to limit the amount of people on each tour. Overall this was a great experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the community. 

My lead project was hosting a theatre showcase for my theatre company. I chose to do this because I have always been a part of theatre and performing arts at Natick, so not only did it align with my interests, but it also gave the people in the company a chance to share their own talents that they wouldn’t get to show elsewhere. To prepare for it, I worked with Liat Stock. We spent a lot of time recruiting people, organizing and holding rehearsals, getting together the tech details such as lights and sound, publicizing it, and actually holding the showcase. It went really well and was a great kick-off event for theatre at Natick. In the future, if I were to hold this again, I would try to have it be on a different night than one with a big home football game to hopefully increase how many people would be in the audience.

For my lead project I directed a team of freshman and sophomores during the Columbus Day Soccer Tournament in Natick. I directed them in photography and coordinated locations for each person to be at and cover. I chose to do this for my lead project because I am passionate about photography and this was a way to give back to the community while also mentoring young photographers. This fulfilled a major need in Natick as now parents were able to enjoy watching their child play rather than worrying about capturing photos of these memories. To prepare, we met as a group so I could assign locations and make sure everyone understood their responsibilities. It went really well, I was able to review their work afterwards and it met a high standard that the Natick  Soccer Club was looking for. In the future I would try and work with these student photographers and help them set up a system where they can directly deliver photos to parents and athletes. 

My lead project was the student leadership of the Frosty 5K. This is a fundraiser race which supports Natick High School's cross country and track & field teams. As a student leader, I was tasked with the management of race promotion through the distribution of signs and flyers as well as the mentorship of a junior in order to keep the chain of student leaders connected. I chose this as my lead project because I feel passionate about my sport and I wanted to be able to support the runners on the team through the crucial funding generated with the race. The race was executed very well and included our largest number of runners in history with 500 runners (a significant increase over the previous year), which meant that our role as the student leaders with advertising had gone effectively along with the phenomenal adult volunteers who helped us to put on a great event. I also value the inclusion of a younger member in the program mentoring him and helping him to continue with this event in future years. 

For my lead project, I organized a hygiene product donation drive to support individuals and families in need. I planned and promoted the project by creating a flyer and sharing it on social media, where people could contribute through monetary donations or arrange to drop off physical items. Using the funds raised, along with additional donations, I was able to collect and purchase essential items such as diapers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and deodorant. After collecting all of the items, I transported them to A Place To Turn to be distributed to those in need. Overall, I successfully gathered a wide range of hygiene products and made a meaningful contribution to my community.

For my lead project, I helped to find other National Honor Society members opportunities for them to complete their lead hours through ServeNatick. I, along with 3 other NHS members, worked with local organizations, like the Natick Organic Farm, to find lead project opportunities that we then were able to give to a number of NHS students. We are working with a number of juniors to continue this program so that they are able to do the same for their class of NHS students. We realized that starting this program earlier would have been more beneficial so we wanted to make sure that our successors would provide the best opportunities for their peers.

My chosen lead project was repairing the chairs at the Common Street Spiritual Center. From 12 PM to 5 PM I was at the Common Street Spiritual Center gluing 30 chairs and washing 12 chairs with the help of a few volunteers. I coordinated with Ian, the director of the spiritual center, under the supervision of Henry Pollock, who provided us with the tools and instructions to complete the tasks. The spiritual center hosts several events that make use of these chairs in their space. Several of these chairs are wobbly, unstable, and dangerous to sit on. By fixing the chairs we were able to make the space a safer place to those who may use it.. I choose this as my leadership project because I am a participant in a group that makes use of the space, so maintaining safety in it is a big priority for me.This experience provided me with a sense of accomplishment after viewing my progress after the fact, as well as allowing me to invest my time and energy into something that was truly helpful to my community. Now, the Common Street Spiritual Center will have safe options for seating when they look to host organizations that wish to use their space. Overall, this project helped me to strengthen my leadership skills, and benefited my community through access to safe seating.

My lead project was planning the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. My partners and I purchased cake, decorations, and refreshments and set up the auditorium and cafeteria. I chose to do this for my project because I wanted to help organize a memorable night for this year's inductees. We prepared for the event by meeting to discuss logistics, shopping at local stores, and communicating with Ms. Chakraborty and Ms. St. Jean. We worked with the photographer and the light and sound volunteers, and on the day of the event, the janitors helped us set up the tables and decorations. Overall, the event went smoothly. We got everything ready on time and had enough refreshments for everyone. If I were to do a similar event in the future, I would do most things the same way, as I felt that working together and planning things out beforehand was very beneficial.

My lead project was running a dinner at the Natick Elks for the elderly and the less-fortunate. I chose this as my lead project because I wanted to give back to the elderly community and others who were struggling, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I knew some of the elderly people there, so that was also a bonus. This project gave many people food who likely couldn't get their own or make their own for free. I prepared for it with the help of my teammates by buying all of the food and supplies necessary for cooking. It went very well, as we ended up making pasta with meatballs served with garlic bread. We also gave out cookies, brownies, and pie for dessert. We got very positive feedback on the Natick Elks website, and they were very grateful for what we did. It was fulfilling to see the positive impact something like this can have on others. 

For my lead project, I organized and ran an introduction to golf clinic at Nehoiden Golf Club for kids ages 8-13. I planned several beginners drills and activities and helped kids with driving, putting, chipping techniques, and golf course etiquette. With the help of the head pro, this beginner clinic was successful, fun, and ended with many kids signing up for golf camps and clinics in the future.

For my lead project, I organized a supply drive for The Buddy Dog Humane Society in Sudbury, MA, to support animal and pet welfare by providing the shelter with essential toys, food, and cleaning supplies. With help from my mom to spread the word online, I prepared by identifying the needs for the shelter, and creating advertisements and using social media. The project was a success, and it effectively fulfilled a need for resources for local pets in need of help.

For my lead project I organized a book drive with one of my peers at Natick High School. After planning, working with the front office, and promoting the drive, we were able to collect books from students and faculty at NHS, and deliver them to the Morse Institute Library. I chose to do this because I know myself and many others have dozens of books laying around that other people and institutions would benefit from. I found this project to be a huge success because we were able to collect 88 books by the end of the week, and donate them. The library will put the books we donated in their seasonal book sale so that they can raise funds for our community library programming. Overall, this project helped me strengthen my leadership, organization, and philanthropic skills. 

I ran a bake sale outside of Stop and Shop from 10-2, to raise money for donations to “A Place to Turn”, a non-profit organization that gives food and hygienic products to people in need. I chose to do this for my lead project because I believe “A Place to Turn” is a great organization that gives back to our community in so many ways, therefore, I wanted to give back to the organization that does so much for the community. I worked with Ellie Keller and Ava Barbadora to raise donations and plan for the bake sale. During the bake sale we raised $700 for monetary donations, as well as physical items to donate to A Place to Turn. With the money we raised, we bought the most needed items to donate to A Place to Turn, like sanitary items and food. We prepared for this project by reaching out to A Place to Turn and Stop and Shop to plan the best time to run a bake sale, and what donations were most needed. It went really well and many donors expressed their gratitude to the organization for their work, and to us for dedicating our time to raise money for A Place to Turn. It was a great teaching moment for me because I learned how important it is to be a leader and take the first step into actively giving back to my community.

For my lead project, I planned and ran a cheer clinic for children between the ages five to thirteen. I chose to run a clinic for my project because I first learned what cheerleading was from a clinic and thought it was a great idea for other kids to try it as well. When doing this project I hoped to be able to help get kids interested in cheerleading and maybe want to try out for a team one year to help grow the youth and high school program. I spent two months planning for this clinic and had meetings with the varsity head coach. During the meetings we talked and confirmed dates along with how I can advertise the clinic. I also made flyers that I could post so I could get more engagement from kids and parents. This clinic went extremely well. I had many kids show up for both dates excited to learn some cheers along with stunts. If I were to run another clinic I would change the times to make them shorter so we could keep the kids attention for longer.

My lead project was to lead and guide discussions and mentoring sessions with 7th and 8th grade Wilson Middle School students that encourages open dialogue, creates a safe space, and offers first hand advice on how to deal with high school sports and everyday school life. I was responsible for presenting slideshows reaching these student athletes about tardiness, skipping class, walking the halls, and how it will affect privilege periods and playtime as an athlete, the idea, presentation and its resources were fully organized by me as well as the lessons I plan to do in the future. I chose to do this for my lead project because of my relationship with Ms. Waldron. She is someone who I look up to and would like to provide any help I can give to, and also because I have first hand experience in the topics I spoke about so I knew that it would be authentic and meaningful. This project intended and met the need of inspiring youth and giving guidelines and mentorship to struggling members of the community. I prepared by creating slideshows, practicing them and also talking to Ms Waldron about how I could tweak and make discussions better and more beneficial for everyone around. I got help from Ms Waldron before presenting but during the presentation and discussion everyone who was a part of it was helpful and a key aspect in it, that goes from 7th grade students, to fellow mentors, to Ms Waldron. The discussion went very well and I believe that I gave a lot of good insight while other mentors chopped in giving theirs and I feel that it truly resonated with the student athletes that it was presented too. There isn't much more I would change in the future just having more experience with talking in a public setting is something that can always be worked on. 

Through ServeNatick, a local nonprofit group that partners students with community service opportunities, I connected with the Natick Community Organic Farm to help them brainstorm and create outreach activities to use at local events. These activities would help people connect with the farm and to spread their influence, all together helping people learn about the farm and its role in promoting agricultural and educational wellbeing in the Natick community. I worked with Jacob Rothschild and Shem Camama to complete this project, during which we came up with five fully worked out plans for the farm; I specifically produced two. These were rock painting and farm-to-table workshops, for which I outlined the materials needed, estimated costs, required setups, and any other important information in a quick and easy reference sheet. They were intended to be simple, low cost activities that easily help people learn about the farm and the goals they stand for. We then met with Erin O’Brien, the Communications and Outreach Director for the farm, and presented to her our ideas, providing her with the reference sheets so that she can implement our ideas at future conventions. Overall, this project was a great opportunity to give back to the farm that I spent a lot of time at as a kid and hopefully will help them extend their image across the community. 

My lead project was giving baseball lessons to younger kids. I chose to do this because I wanted to grow the game I loved and hopefully spread it to the younger generation. I also enjoyed watching kids get better while having a great time. Getting texts from parents saying their kid had a great time and wants to do this weekly always brings a smile to my face. I also want to see these kids take my information and tips and run with it, hopefully getting to make the varsity team and maybe even play in college one day. 

For my lead project, I worked with geriatric rehabilitation patients in a role where I lead patients through different activities. Specifically, my tasks were to complete puzzles and games with them, while also talking with them about their pasts and building connections. To prepare for this project, I had my Grandma give me advice because she has worked with patients of this type before. Overall, this opportunity went well and I am glad that I was able to bring joy to these patients by being there for them!

My project went well and I cleaned out a lot of trash around the trails of lake Cochituate. There was a ton of trash from bottles to wrappers and myself and a few friends made sure that everything was cleaned up. I think that because of cleaning up all this trash and broken glass, we will help keep people safe from not cutting themselves on glass and keeping trash out of the lake protects the environment.

The lead project I pursued was a project to help the natick community farm with future events and to keep the community engaged as well as help them learn about plants and biodiversity. I helped brainstorm ideas along with Jack Stephens and Shem Camama to find activities that we could do with a large group of people(up to 300), for a very cheap and accessible activity. I decided to make a google doc about seed balls which are small clumps of seeds, compost, clay, and water that anyone can make and place on the ground, where after some rain they will grow into whatever seed they chose. I chose this activity because it's pretty easy to both set up and do with large groups of people and there are very real effects because if planted around the farm there coul;d be a ton more flowers and color as a result. I also showed the prices for everything to show how scalable it is with large groups of people. Overall I'm glad I got to brainstorm and share this idea and I hope to see it used on the farm in the fut

I am a senior leader in the Student-Athlete Mentoring (SAM) program at Wilson Middle School. As mentor captain, I help plan and organize activities during our meetings, coordinate appropriate meeting times, and assist with vetting and onboarding new mentors to ensure they are prepared to serve as positive role models. I meet with the Wilson faculty to review the club’s goals and overall direction and actively participate in these discussions. I continue to serve as a club representative in meetings with faculty and administration. I also work closely with the program’s sponsor to support students who have made poor choices and need individualized guidance. In these situations, I help connect students with mentors who are closer to their age so they can better understand the real-life impact of their decisions from someone they can relate to. This individualized approach allows us to address behavioral concerns while reinforcing accountability, growth, and positive decision-making. The goal of SAM is to prepare current middle school student-athletes for the social, academic, and athletic changes they will encounter in high school. We emphasize the differences between being a leader and role model versus being a regular high school student, as well as the higher expectations that come with representing a team and school as a student-athlete leader. To achieve these goals, I participate in biweekly check-ins to monitor grades and disciplinary reports and ensure students remain on track. I prioritize building strong, supportive relationships so students feel comfortable seeking guidance and openly discussing challenges they may face. Additionally, I present to school staff on the effectiveness and continued growth of the SAM program by sharing data, student progress, and success stories that highlight the program’s positive impact on our school community. 

I led planning, discussion, and recruitment for the Wilson Middle School Student Athlete Mentorship (SAM) program. I chose this for my lead project because of the space we fostered between the high school Mentors and the middle school Mentees- one that I wish I had in middle school. It was even more meaningful because there had never been a female centered space by female student athletes and for female student athletes. I started conversations about high school life, skills for success, and when/how to prepare for their future. But broader than these preplanned conversation topics, we played games, talked about the less important things, and bonded as a group. In doing so we created a space where each mentee felt comfortable to talk and learn, and grew my own ability to lead, prepare, and connect.

For my lead project, I partnered with Kimmy Fisher to plan and run a bake sale fundraiser for the West Street Singers Show Choir at NHS. We began with reaching out to many grocery stores to coordinate a day to fundraise, and ended up planning with Roche Bros. Following this, we informed the choir managers of our plans and began tracking sign-ups for our sale. We filled out the paperwork, sent many reminder emails, created our fundraiser sign, coordinated how we would get our table and chairs, and picked up our cash box. Kimmy and I each baked an item to sell and collected everyone else’s items the day of. The fundraiser lasted from 12:30-4:30 on January 10th and we ended up raising over $800 for the West St. Singers competition season!

For my lead project, I helped the Science Department organize materials and LEGOS. I chose this project because I wanted to give back to the department that I enjoyed the most classes during my time at Natick High School. In this role, I worked many hours alongside a group of peers to sort materials into organization towers, making it easier for those to access parts. I created a system that I taught to my peers to speed up the process, making endless sorting more bearable. In the end, this experience showed me how grit, determination, and teamwork can lead to a successful result. I hope my organization can be maintained for years to come!

My lead project was coaching a 7th grade football player, Kieran Summers, to try and reach his maximum potential. I chose this for my lead because I have coached him in the past and knew that he had great potential to be a quarterback for years to come. I believe that me coaching him would fulfill our community in the fact that we will need a new quarterback for the football team in a few years and he can bring back all the old fans and show out for everybody to watch. I used to coach for a super well known new england quarterback academy that is now one of the best in the country, so I got drills and techniques from them that I taught specifically to Kieran. He ended up making throws that he couldn’t before the sessions and threw the ball 7 yards further than he could before. In the future I would like to add more players instead of just the 1, so they can compete together and that would show huge growth between them.

For my lead project, I helped redesign and update the Natick High School Science Alumni website for the Natick High School Science Department. This included drawing and implementing new title pages, reformatting, and adding new members to their respective STEM categories. Over the course of 6 months, I worked alongside peers to revitalize the website. I chose this for my lead project to explore all of the diverse paths that STEM alumni from Natick have taken to impact the world, and to highlight some of the possible opportunities for current students at Natick.

My lead project was serving as a mentor and lead student volunteer for the Frosty 5K, a charity race benefiting the Natick Cross Country and Track Boosters Club. I chose this project because it directly supports Natick High School athletics and is entirely volunteer-run, creating a strong need for student leadership and involvement. Through this role, I helped provide essential funding that allows the cross country and track programs to have a successful season. I prepared for the project by advertising the race through multiple platforms and volunteering during bib pickup and race registration. On race day, everything ran smoothly and the race was the most successful yet. One of the most meaningful outcomes of this project was mentoring a junior student to step into my role as lead volunteer next year, ensuring the continued success of the Frosty 5K.

For my lead project, I correspond with a teacher at Wilson Middle School, Catherine Sousa, to organize and plan mentorship meetings, and one Thursday a month, I would run the mentorship get together for girls. I created fun and engaging activities so the high school students can bond with the middle schoolers, and also made a comfortable environment for the middle school girls to talk freely. I also coordinated numbers of high schoolers to make sure the middle schoolers had enough high schoolers with Ms Sousa. This went well, and the middle schoolers were able to bond a lot with the high schoolers over the time we had together so far. I accomplished leadership skills and was able to adjust to problems such as high schoolers not showing up, or certain games/activities not working and shifting to something different.

For my lead project, I led a Natick Babe Ruth Baseball team as an assistant coach. On the team, my tasks were to organize and run drills during practices, create a lineup so everyone has equal playing time, track every pitch through an app, and ensure that everyone is still having fun while trying to win. I wanted to coach because I have participated in Natick Youth Baseball every year that I could play, and now that I could no longer play, I still wanted to be a part of the program. I also wanted to give my advice on sportsmanship, respect, and competitiveness during this experience. Overall, our season was successful as everyone had a great time, and we even won a playoff game. This has deepened my appreciation for teaching and mentoring young students, and I definitely want to continue doing this in future years.

For my lead project I partnered with another student to run the Loved to Death Workshop sponsored by the Northeastern Game Changers. We started by creating a slideshow and using the Game Changers research to complete our presentation. Then, we reached out to the father of Lauren Astley, a teen who was murdered by her boyfriend, asking him to speak. We presented statistics from the MetroWest Health Survey, examined the tragedy, and led discussions. These discussions were focused on parents and adults who were interested in doing their part to fight relationship abuse. Spanning about an hour and a half, we received an immense amount of compliments which told us about how helpful the event was! 

For my Lead project, I helped create lead projects for National Honor Society members who did  not have one. With the help of 3 other NHS members, we reached out to local organizations, elders in our community, and the Town of Natick through ServeNaticks’s non-profit platform to see if they were interested in volunteer work from National Honor Society members. When our outside connections were interested, we would then get the projects approved by our NHS advisors and then we’d push them out to students still needing  Lead Projects. Members usually found projects that they were interested in and would carry them out with some opportunities to give assistance hours to those involved. 

Abhi Saxena, Ryan Trout, and I plan on organizing a trash pickup during a weekend in March on Glen street in South Natick, Massachusetts. We will gather a group of people to go out and pickup trash for a day to make the road more clean and environmentally friendly. I will be the Liaison coordinator and site manager for the trash pickup. Ryan will be organizing the materials needed for the trash pickup like grabbers and trash bags. Abhi will do outreach to find people who also want to participate in the pickup. Our lead project was a huge success. We went up and down Glen Street in South Natick and secured 3 full bags of litter from the roadsides. I heard from neighbors that there was a noticeable difference in the cleanliness of the road and that they were happy it was so much cleaner. Our project was launched in the hopes to clean a dirty road often used for walking and running by pedestrians.

For my lead project, I organized and led a winter coat drive at my dance studio. I created flyers and a donation bin to place in the studio, and sent out an announcement to inform families that they could donate slightly used or new coats. I chose this for my lead project because I want to give back to those in need and I wanted to do so through my dance community. The dance studio owner helped me to spread the word about the clothing drive, and I successfully collected coats to donate locally. 

For my lead project, I fundraised for a mission trip in Puerto Rico. I sold concessions at a candlelight service at Faith Community Church with a few others which successfully raised money for our mission trip in Puerto Rico this summer. Additionally, I organized and coordinated my own campaign to raise money for the trip, successfully raising over $1500 to be able to go. I chose this for my lead project because I like to travel, but also Puerto Rico is tied as 4th in the country with the largest elderly population and 40% are living below the poverty line. We will be able to serve in nursing homes, homeless ministry, soup kitchens, and home repairs. My family, friends, and church leaders helped me through this project. 

For my lead project I worked with a fellow student, Lucille Powell. Together, we set up a table outside of Stop and Shop, requesting nonperishables and hygiene products from shoppers. Once we collected the items, we sorted and packaged them before donating them to "A Place to Turn." We had a very good turnout, filling around 50 grocery bags with items. The shoppers who donated had a large amount of gratitude for the cause - and for us running the event

For my lead project I built a training platform for the nonprofit ServeMA to train youth leaders  across the state on how they can utilize their skills in technology, communication, marketing, etc to run a chapter of ServeMA. ServeMA is a community service organization run through Youth Empowerment to connect communities through philanthropy and events. Overall, it was a great learning experience to apply my skills to teaching others and I was glad to watch other students improve their skills through this training.

For my lead project, I directed a day of trail work on the mountain bike trails at Hunnewell Town Forest with Town of Natick Open Spaces & Trails. In addition to maintaining and continuing the construction of the mountain bike trails, my responsibilities included teaching volunteers how to perform trail work, directing them to which parts of the trails need to be worked on, and supervising their work. I thought the project went pretty well although I was only able to organize one day of work due to the snow staying around for longer than expected and the limited availability of the site liaison and other key volunteers. However, we were still able to get a good amount of work done in a short amount of time, including making the uphill trail rideable again by clearing it of leaves, benchcutting the ground on the switchbacks, and getting rid of a fallen tree that had been partially blocking the trail since last fall.

For my lead project I worked with Julie Hieshetter, the director of the Navigator Program at North Hill, a lifecare community in Needham, where I created a photo book promoting the program, which focuses on the importance of purposeful living and human connections. I interviewed the Navigators -- those who are at various stages of memory loss and cognitive impairment -- and I encouraged them to share stories about themes such as family and creativity and what the activities and interpersonal connections offered by the program mean to them. These interviews allowed me to understand and connect with individuals who have all made the most of life thus far and continue to share their generosity and lively spirit with others. These interviews were essential to my final product: a photo book that humanizes an otherwise dehumanizing condition. 

For my lead project, I was a core member for TOPSoccer, a program for young athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities. In this role, I coordinated with the directors, communicated with high school volunteers, paired up volunteers with athletes, and organized drills for each session. I also helped run the drills and ensured that all the athletes were engaged and having fun. I chose to do this for my lead project because I believe everyone should have the opportunity to be involved with team sports. I have loved to build deep connections with all of the athletes throughout the season, and it has been rewarding to see their confidence and joy for the game grow.

For my lead project, I will be planning, organizing, and running a youth softball clinic for grades 3rd through 8th. The two other Softball captains and I will be reaching out to Natick Softball Little league coaches, parents, and volunteers to gain interest from youth players, and also posting flyers on social media to spread the word. I will be creating planned schedules for the camp and personally coaching different age groups of players. The other captains and I will also be collaborating to brainstorm fun and engaging drills for all age and skill levels, with the goal of creating interest and love for Softball and teaching important skills like sportsmanship, teamwork, and determination to the younger players.

For my lead project I partnered with another student to run the Loved to Death Workshop sponsored by the Northeastern Game Changers to share the story of Lauren Dunne Astley, a teen who was murdered by her boyfriend and sparked the creation of this organization to prevent dating violence . We started by creating a slideshow by using the Game Changers research and the Loved to Death workshop guidelines to complete our presentation. Then, we reached out to the father of Lauren Dunne Astley, asking him to speak as our keynote speaker. We presented statistics from the MetroWest Health Survey, shared Lauren’s story, and led discussions around relationship abuse. These discussions were presented to parents and adults who were interested in doing their part to fight relationship abuse. Spanning about two hours, we were able to cover all the important topics and do our part in preventing dating violence in our community and got parents to care about this ongoing challenge and fight. 

I organized a book drive in my community. I created flyers, digital postings on community Facebook pages, and reached out to friends and family to let them know I organized a book drive. I picked up all of the books from their houses, and brought the books to the Morse Institute Library, where they can be repurposed to benefit the community. This project helped me to better my understanding of how community service truly benefits the community, such as increased access to educational resources.

For my lead project I worked alongside a teacher at Wilson Middle School, Catherine Sousa to organize and plan mentorship meetings for 7th and 8th grade students twice a month. I ran the mentorship for one month and in this role as lead mentor I was able to create fun engaging activities and lessons that would help the students be prepared for high school and stay actively engaged in middle school. In these meetings high schoolers were able to connect with the middle schoolers to build community. Overall, the meetings went very well and everyone had a great time and felt they took something away from the lessons. I developed leadership skills in the classroom but also organizational, communication and problem solving skills.

For my lead project, I partnered with Jaslyne Agosto to plan and run a bake sale fundraiser for the West St Singers Show Choir at Natick High School. We began reaching out to many stores to coordinate a day to fundraise, and ended up choosing Roche Bros. After this, we informed the choir managers of our plans and created a sheet to track sign ups for our sale. We filled out the paperwork, sent many reminder emails, created our fundraiser sign, coordinated how we would get our table and chairs, and picked up our cashbox. Jaslyne and I each baked an item to sell and collected everyone else's items the day of the sale. The fundraiser lasted from 12:30 - 4:30 on January 10th and we ended up raising over $800 for the West St Singers competition season!

For my project I went to a memory care unit with some of my friends to do the women's nails. The place kindly provided the materials for us. We were given many colors of nail polish and some nail files. The women often chose natural colors but sometimes there would be a bright pink in the mix. Me and my friends would go once a week for five weeks to do the women's nails. I came up with this idea because my grandma is in a memory care unit and there are not many activities going on and people for them to talk to. So I thought it would be nice to go to Natick Sought and paint the women's nails. The women were always so happy to see new faces in the building and even if they did not want their nails done they would still come to sit and talk with us. It was so fun and we had great conversations with them. The women were very grateful and happy that we would come. I hope to still go and help out when I can or if they need assistance. I had so much fun doing the project and hope that more people do projects there in the future.

My lead project was to create and donate 20 wellness kits to Rosie’s Place. Rosie’s Place is a women only homeless shelter in Boston that works to provide shelter and opportunities for low income and homeless women. For the items in the wellness kits, some of them were donated and the rest were bought using money collected from a bake sale. We collected $500 from our bake sale and used the money to buy items for the wellness kits. We created 20 wellness kits, which are bags containing shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, body lotion, face lotion, bars of soap, and chapstick. I chose this for my lead project because homelessness is a very important issue that is not addressed enough, and I wanted to support Rosie’s Place which is a great organization because they not only provide shelter but they provide opportunities for women to get jobs and break the cycle of homelessness. Overall, the wellness kits were a success and gave 20 women access to unused sanitary products & necessities. 

For my lead project, I was chosen to organize a fundraiser bake sale for National Honor Society alongside three other members. I chose to sign up for this lead project because midyear exams are typically a very stressful time for me and other students, and something as simple as a sweet treat can bring peace of mind to people as they leave their exams for the day. We began planning the bake sale in December, and ran it on the Tuesday and Wednesday of midyear exams week. NHS members were able to donate baked goods like cookies, cupcakes, and donuts for assist hours, which we sold to students, staff, and faculty to make around $100 across the two days the bake sale was open. Overall, I believe that this project was a success and I'm thankful for the opportunity to have served our school's community during a stressful time! 

For my lead project, I gathered a group of younger students and created a dance for them, and taught them this dance. The purpose of creating this dance and teaching it was to have the students perform at a small event for a Japanese Language School in front of a crowd. Working on this project, not only did I create a dance and teach the kids this dance, but I also organized a space to teach the younger students, contacted the school to have them perform, and bought/made some of their costumes. The entire time I worked on this project, everything went extremely smoothly, but sometimes when teaching the younger students, there were some problems, such as the students not listening. In the end, the students seemed to enjoy the dance and the classes, making everything go smoothly. Finally, on the day of the performance, all the students performed well and with smiles on their faces. 

For my lead project I volunteered at Charles River Aquatics as a swim trainer at a clinic that offered children the chance to learn how to swim. The children were ages 3-7 years old with most not even being able to float. I had around 3-5 kids I taught per class (1 hour) for five classes . I was able to teach most children to float and around half to kick while on their stomachs and back. I had a very positive experience from this as the children were very happy to learn how to swim and their parents thanked which made my experience even better. I was happy to see that my hard work allowed children to feel and be more safe around water and their parents not being as protective when it comes to having their children play in the water.

For my lead project I worked with two students from the access program at Natick Highschool at a company called Boston Gourmet Chefs. For the projects we helped the company prepare for a food show they were having. I chose this project because I was previously working with Boston Gourmet Chefs, and I also have worked with people in the access program in previous years and I really enjoy working with the access program and people with special needs. I prepared for this with the head of HR going over what projects we will be doing then I explained it to the guys and helped them through the various tasks. It went very well. Way smoother than expected and I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

My lead project was planning, organizing, and hosting Natick High Theatre Company's start-of-year showcase. Our theatre company puts on a total of three productions a year, but this event is geared towards everybody involved in the program who would like to showcase their talents and skills. Performers are able to display their abilities through singing, dancing, improv, monologue reading and beyond, and the event is open to the entire Natick community. I chose to do this as my lead project due to my heavy involvement in the NHS theatre company over the past four years, and felt that this was a meaningful way to give back to the performing arts community. Any student at Natick High regardless of their participation in previous full scale productions was able to participate if they chose to, creating a welcoming and supportive environment for anyone and everyone who loves theatre. I worked alongside Eva Clark to plan, hold rehearsals, and bring this event to life, and we were thrilled by the amount of people who involved themselves and the audience turnout. 

My lead project went very well. Me, Katie McMahon, and Caitlyn Russel ran a clinic for youth softball. I chose to do this as my lead project because I have been playing softball since I was little and wanted to make others love the game as much as I do. We made a video to advertise our clinic and made flyers and sent out many emails to youth softball families. The actual lead project consisted of hands-on drills where the girls could work with varsity softball players to sharpen their skills. We did a mixture of drills and games. In the future we could send out emails sooner to try to get more girls to sign up. 

For my National Honor Society lead project, I organized a toiletry drive to help support women that have experienced domestic violence and homelessness. I chose to do this project because I believe that it is incredibly important that all women have essential hygiene projects in order to feel confident and be the best versions of themselves. I did this by collecting money through Venmo and donating all proceeds to Dignity Matters, an organization dedicated to providing women with necessities. This project was meaningful to me because it allowed me to support women in vulnerable situations and make a difference in their lives. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to help women in need, and am so happy I made some of their lives a little bit better! 

For my project, I volunteered as a mentor for a local youth theatre production at the Natick Academy of Performing Arts. I spent a few days with a group of kids in production of a show leading them in learning new skills and practicing what they already knew. I was able to provide as much information and experience as possible to the group of young students as well as support and encouragement. I worked both with the group as a whole and in small groups and with individuals to hone in on specific needs and bolster areas of improvement. I felt I was able to successfully lead the students in improving and implementing their skills as well as creating a fun and welcoming environment where they could also try new things and be themselves without judgement. 

For my lead project, I collaborated with my fellow student, Jura Ide, to collect canned food donations for our local food pantry, A Place to Turn. Together, we set up a table outside Stop and Shop and requested donations of hygiene products and non-perishable items. Once we had collected the items, we sorted and packaged them before driving them to A Place to Turn. We had an amazing turnout with many people donating multiple bags of items, and we were able to collect over 50 grocery bags of donations!

My lead project was organizing an event to get boys volleyball players ready for tryouts and girls extra reps for their season if they did not have any other opportunities. I chose this for my lead because I love to help people out, play volleyball, and give people opportunities to play when they would otherwise not be doing anything. I prepared for this lead project by coordinating what time we would be able to have in the gym, sent emails and made a post about the event, and got there early to prepare and stayed late to close up. I did this project with Emily Sonneborn because we both have the same interests and goals. If I did this again in the future, I would make sure to start getting the word out about the event sooner so we could get even more people to show up.

For my project, I planned and ran a three hour youth soccer clinic for younger athletes (specifically 5th graders from Natick). The clinic focused on developing basic soccer skills while also encouraging teamwork, confidence, and enjoyment of the sport. During the clinic, I led small sided games, skill building drills, and fun competitive activities that worked on passing, dribbling, and shooting. I chose this project because I have played soccer starting a young age and always looked up to older players, and I wanted to be a role model for younger athletes. Overall, the clinic was successful and helped me build leadership and communication skills while also helping younger soccer players.

My lead project was running a free soccer clinic open to any youth soccer kids looking to improve their soccer skills and prepare for the next level. I chose to do this lead project because I am really passionate about soccer and this is something I wish I had before coming to high school. I also enjoy helping others and meeting new people. This project helped the community come together overall and create a safe and fun environment for people to thrive and succeed. This had a positive impact on the community because the kids will be less nervous about tryouts coming into highschool, and embrace their passion! I prepared for this by spending a lot of time planning drills, and activities that specifically work on teamwork and the overall success of the players. My fellow captains at NHS soccer helped, along with my past coaches who gave me advice on how to be a good coach and engage with the players. I would say it went really well because I could see all of the smiles on the kids' faces, and the feedback we received they all feel a lot more comfortable and already want to do another session. Something I would change in the future is reaching out to more people to get even more kids involved!

For my lead project, I helped create arts and craft kits through Memorial Elementary's ASAP Program where I volunteer. These kits including writing notebooks, markers, stickers, scissors, glue sticks, patterned paper, and clay packets were donated to Family Promise for them to give out during their summer initiative for children in need when they were not in school. I led the activity at Memorial school, collaborating with the kids from all grades to design the craft kit boxes, assemble the supplies, and leave notes for the future owner of the kit. I, along with my friend, ran this project over three days in early March and took charge of bringing the kits directly to Family Promise ourselves. Overall, I felt my lead project was a success as I brought the ASAP kids and staff all together and organized a smooth, assembly project while giving back to those less fortunate in our community.

For my lead project I organized and delivered candy grams alongside Grace Zhang and the National Honor Society to every staff member at Natick high school before winter break. I chose to do this lead project because I am very grateful for all of the hard work teachers and staff put into our education and I wanted to show them some appreciation. I prepared for this project by purchasing and packaging 400 bags of candy with notes stating our gratitude. I believe this project went very well as every staff member received a little gift bag and hopefully felt appreciated.

I organized and led a street cleanup with a group of my friends in our local neighborhood. We chose a few streets that had noticeable litter and focused on improving the environment by picking up trash and properly disposing of waste. We worked together to cover multiple areas, collecting several bags of trash and making a visible difference. Our goal was to clean up the neighborhood and show how even a small group can make a positive impact on the community.

My lead project was being a guest teacher at Unity Farm Sanctuary for the small preschool they have there. I chose this project because I’ve known this group of people for a while and they gave me the opportunity to, which was such a great privilege, and I love teaching younger kids topics I know a lot about, and in this case the topics were about animals. This project fulfilled kids’ at the preschool’s needs by giving them two days of fun activities and new learning opportunities—I was able to bring them inside most of the animals’ living areas (goats, sheep, alpacas) and teach them how to behave safely around larger animals and to respect them as living things. I prepared for it by creating a rough lesson plan for three hours each day I was there (Wed/Thurs), where I included an introduction activity, story time, crafts like coloring and making animals out of materials like paper, popsicle sticks, etc., a lunch, and of course time with the animals. They went inside with most of the animals there aside from the very big ones (horses, cows), but we were still able to talk about them from outside their living areas. It was mainly Jennifer, a board member, who helped me accomplish all of this and get things approved, so thanks to her! It went great and we didn’t really deviate from my lesson plans even though I was expecting we would, and it actually went on around half an hour later each day than I thought it would, but the kids had a lot of fun. I think the only thing I’d change is not doing this alone because it got hectic at times even though there were always adults around. It would’ve been nice to have a friend be the second guest teacher, but other than that, it was very fun and fulfilling! 

For my lead project I organized a fundraiser selling Camp Arrowhead merch to raise money for PATH for Adaptive Opportunities. I worked alongside a local company, Blue Hill Promo, to create a website and choose the merchandise that would be sold. Once all the clothing choices and logos were decided upon the website was launched and ran from December 26th to January 14th. During that time I created a social media post to advertise the fundraiser, and emails were sent out to families of Arrowhead. In the end $320 was raised which will go back to PATH to help fund adaptive programming for people with disabilities. I choose this project because throughout my time in high school I have gotten a chance to volunteer and work in programs that have been funded with PATHs support. Their drive of creating more opportunities and building an inclusive community for people with disabilities is inspiring. Overall this project was a great experience and I am grateful for all that was raised for PATH.

My lead project was a free beginner's fencing clinic hosted at my club, Zeta Fencing. I worked with the owner of the club, Eli Dershwitz, who is a three-time Olympian, a World Champion, and my coach. Together, we ran a class with a few kids from the community in attendance. The kids learned all the basics of fencing and even got to fence a couple of bouts themselves. Even a few of the moms learned some basic footwork. It was an awesome time. Leading up to the day of the clinic, I handled the planning, logistics, and advertising. Then, on the day of the clinic, I helped with coaching the participants. I’m very pleased that I was able to plan this and expose people in the local community to this niche sport.

I worked with Sophie Bourgery to set up and run a long jump clinic for middle school athletes. Since these athletes typically do not get a lot of coaching in this event, we wanted to offer them extra instruction and share a sport that we are passionate about. The first thing that we had to do was contact the middle school track coaches so we could gague the athletes interest. Then, we reached out to the parents and athletes about when and where we would be hosting our clinics. Before the athletes arrived, we set up drills and prepared the pits for them. During the clinic, we lead a warm up and lead the athletes through drills. At the end of each clinic, each athlete took a full jump to track their progress. All of the athletes showed improvement after the clinics. 

For my lead project, I organized a clothing drive to benefit the Natick Service Council. I chose a clothing drive because I know that many families cannot afford to purchase clothing, especially warm coats and jackets for the cold winter months. I collected clothing items at my temple, Temple Beth Elohim, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I created a flyer for the drive, advertised the drive in the weekly emails to temple members, and placed a bin in the temple lobby to collect donations. In total, I collected over 350 items, including coats, sweaters, pants, professional clothing, pajamas, shoes, children and infant clothing, and much more. Dropping off the clothes at the Natick Service Council, I saw just how impactful my clothing drive was. I was able to collect hundreds of clothing items that would allow Natick residents to have enough clothes for the winter without price tags standing in the way. Overall, organizing this drive was a great experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved in giving back to our community.

My lead project involved teaching an online calculus course through Schoolhouse.world. I chose this for my lead project because I enjoyed the AP Calculus course and thought I could assist other students with my understanding. For many students nationwide, the AP curriculum is difficult and tiresome, so I hoped to remedy that as I taught classes in the course that focused on the specific topics students who signed up were struggling with. To prepare for each lesson, I gathered preparational material with online resources and my own review time. All in all, I believe that my project was successful. I was able to clear up confusion and serve my peers. Next time, I would maybe add more interactive parts into the lesson, but this was not a hindrance to participation. 

For my lead project, I helped run the National Honor Society's bake sale to help fund our chapter. I chose this role because I thought that it would be a fun way to exhibit leadership and serve my community directly. In this role, I worked hours alongside my peers to set up and operate the bake sale. There, I had a great time collaborating, helping to direct operations, and making people happy with delicious baked goods! Overall, my experience was a great success, and helped to show me how compromising as a leader can make for a much better experience.

For my lead project I created a video montage of the unified basketball season. For this project I had to learn how to properly use a video camera to get adequate footage. I filmed during practices and games, and compiled interviews of players and coaches. I also worked to edit the video into the final product to be shown at the banquet. Overall this project was successful because it showcased the true meaning of unified basketball and brought joy to the parents, coaches, and athletes during the banquet.

For my lead project, I organized and led a book drive for More than Words, which will help power youth- run social enterprise. After collecting the books I delivered seven boxes of books to one of the drop-off locations in Boston. My team of five people and I worked together throughout the week posting flyers, collecting books and going through the books to check on the condition. The books collected covered different reading levels from children books through adult levels and some non-english books.

For my lead project, I worked with two other NHS members to overhaul the graphic design of a website for Natick’s Science Department. To create this website, we took information provided by over 40 Natick alumni in STEM careers and synthesized it to allow students to see potential careers in STEM. We created individual profiles for each alum, presenting the university that they attend/attended, classes they have taken, internships that they have secured, and their current jobs. The profiles of these alumni have now been displayed in science rooms across the school, serving as motivation for current students to pursue careers in the STEM field. 

Our project was a food drive held in honor of Justin Bailey, and it went very well due to the abundance of food items we were able to collect for people in need. Through the effort of everyone involved, we received a large number of donations that will help support members of the community. Overall, the project was a success and showed how people can come together to make a positive impact.

For my lead project I chose to run a soccer session for kids that are trying to improve their soccer skills. I chose to do this for my lead project because I personally really enjoy playing soccer myself. Being able to help other kids like the game makes me really happy, and starting soccer from a young age will help them for the future. This offers a free social environment for kids to learn soccer with other kids in the community. We were all working together and having fun, and along with that enjoying hearing coaches input and trying new skills! To prepare for this clinic, we planned out the sessions and drills that would be most effective for the kids. We made sure each drill was understandable and fun so that they could learn in a positive environment. My parents and teammates also helped with this, by giving ideas and support through the beginning to end of the clinic. The clinic had a really good outcome and it was really enjoyable to see kids have fun playing soccer within the community. For the future I would reach out to more people and make it an even bigger event. Doing this would give a lot more kids a really good experience!

For my lead project, I organized a dance clothing drive at my dance studio. In order to complete this, I shared information with families to gather donated clothes and costumes. These items were then given to children who take dance class at the Framingham Boys and Girls Club. I chose to lead this project because I wanted to help provide kids with clothing and costumes they could wear to class. This project made a meaningful impact and I enjoyed having the opportunity to give children access to quality dancewear.

I organized and ran a bake sale at Roche Brothers with fellow students to raise money for the Natick Girls Tennis team. I helped set up the table, communicate with customers, and sell baked goods while explaining the purpose of our fundraiser. Through this project, we successfully raised money to support the team and engaged with members of the community in a meaningful way.

Most of my work on the project was preparing the bins and dropping off and picking up at the local churches. I personally thrift a lot in my personal life and I like to donate clothes when I go because not only is it giving back to that community, but those contributions also often end up supporting those in need. Socks are an especially important item of clothing because many unhoused individuals don’t have access to resources to clean them and therefore they have a short lifespan. I am satisfied with what me and Declan accomplished because if it were not for us running this drive it's very likely many of those families would not have taken the time to go to a drop off center and would not have contributed anything.

For my lead project I planned a group of 4-5 people to clean up any pollution around Natick Village. I supplied the group with trash bags, gloves, and any other required supplies. I also personally disposed of all the trash we collected in an adequate manner. I chose this as my lead project because I work in Natick Village and constantly see trash around the barbecue area. I wanted to help make it a clean shared space for families and individuals to be able to enjoy themselves in. Furthermore, I know how special this location can be due to the fact that I used to live there and would always use the space with my friends to grill and have picnics. In return I wanted to help the community keep a clean environment. To prepare for this project I first looked around my home for the materials needed, and any missing items I simply bought from my local dollar store. The project was a great success, the area was left clean and the trash was disposed of in the local dump. I wouldn't change anything about this project for the future due to it being such a success. 

For my National Honor Society leadership project, I worked to grow and manage my father’s journalism social media account to increase brand awareness and engagement. I created and followed an upload plan and also designed posts. By posting content, I increased follower growth across all platforms. This project strengthened my skills in data analysis and communication by allowing me to work directly with my father. It also taught me how marketing and consistency can transform an online presence into a meaningful social media page.

For my lead project, me and my fellow captain organized the participation of the Natick High School Boys Tennis Team in Natick Days. We chose this because the team had never been a part of the Natick Days fundraiser before, and it is a great way for us to get involved and raise money for the upcoming season. The team has been in need of things like uniforms, equipment, and other merchandise, so this was a great way to help reach those goals and put ourselves out there into the community. To prepare for the event we attended the meetings at Natick Parks & Recreation to understand everything required of us, and how we could run our booth. Overall, this project went very well and we were able to raise money that can be put forth to help the team during the season in the spring. We hope that by making this our first year participating in Natick Days, future leaders of the team will continue this, and strengthen our connection with the Natick Community.

I co-led the team running the Massachusetts Impact Collaborative on March 25, handling digital design, event technology, slide creation, ticketing, speaker briefings, and website updates. I also presented a keynote during the event. The event went pretty smoothly, with a strong attendance in the auditorium as well as online. We featured several high‑achieving speakers, including former NBA player Wayne Selden Jr. and professional soccer player Chloe Ricketts.

For this lead project, I was chosen with a few others to run a bake sale during midterms week, since that week was stressful for a handful of students and staff. I chose to do this lead project because I love bake sales and I also understand the stress that individuals have during the midterm week. I thought that this would be a good way to benefit the NHS and also other students at Natick High who may wish for something nice after a hard day. Mrs. St. Jean assigned us the project in late December and for preparation, I figured out the location of the bake sale, the slides for the nhs meeting, how we will get the baked goods, and setting up the stand. Lauren and I ran it after school on Tuesday of the midterms week and earned $52 for NHS. On Wednesday, Chris Albert and Michael Kelley ran the stand after school, earning close to $40. Overall, I would say that the lead project went well. Since we were not allowed to run the bake sale during the school day, it was much harder to attract customers, however, we ended up earning almost $100 for the NHS! I think that in the future it may be beneficial if we located our stand near the library instead of the auditorium, since a lot of students leave from the office area to their car. In addition, I think that spending more days after school could have helped us receive more money. I feel as if overall the bake sale was able to not only help the NHS, but also help connect Natick High School, since we provided resources for students who started their week off testing. We received all lead hours for this project. 

For my lead project, I served as a leader in SAT math tutoring through an online program. I chose this lead project because I did very well on my SATs and enjoy working with others. This program included extensive training to prepare to teach students, running twice-weekly meetings for students, creation of weekly lesson plans, analysis of test scores, and subsequent teachings on specific math topics to help students improve or prepare to take their SATs. I worked closely with small groups of students to teach multiple segments of math, and used surveys after each meeting to improve the following lessons. This program helps the community by offering free, accessible tutoring for students all over the country. I help coach students through lessons and review problems, give them access to question banks and other free tools, and offer mentorship to kids in need. In the future, I would like to run the classes for more weeks to ensure each student feels confident in their abilities, and reach out to students more to connect with them.

For my lead project, Carmel and I created an intro to coding class/workshop for younger students (7th to 9th). We hoped to inspire students to enter the computer science field and teach them how to get started with coding. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school, we presented our slideshow that we had created for the class and began a workshop session where students could work on their own, with us assisting them along the way. The students worked on a cumulative project, being an airport management software. We taught all the basics, including some more advanced topics such as classes and inheritance, making sure they were ready to take on their own projects in the future!

For my National Honors Society lead project, I used my mobile car detailing business, Metrowest Detailing, to host a fundraiser for Boston Children’s Hospital. I managed the entire process, from designing flyers and social media ads to scheduling appointments and ordering supplies. Throughout November, I led a small team of students to perform express details for residents in Natick and nearby towns. We completed seven car details and donated $470. 

For my lead project, I organized and led a shampoo donation for A Place to Turn, which will provide the necessary supplies to those in local communities, such as Natick, for the year. I was able to collect nearly fifty bottles of shampoo, ranging from two-in-one shampoo to kids' shampoo, through creating posters, handing them out, reaching out to local businesses, posting online, and going door to door in neighborhoods. This is a project that A Place to Turn specifically asked me to do, as every year, they need a new supply of shampoo to hand out for the year to those unable to afford hygiene products, and this not only contributes to my own community but other communities and towns nearby. 

I organized and worked with a group of volunteers to plan a series of lessons, including slideshows and demonstrations, that provide an introductory view into the Java programming language. After teaching these lessons to interested students at Natick High School, I received feedback that lessons were easy to follow along with, and that students were able to conveniently access resources and ask questions. 

My lead project was organizing the National Honor Society booth at Natick Days, our organization’s only fundraiser. The booth was a cake walk, which I chose because it directly benefits all members and gave me an opportunity to get to know them better. Through this project, I also connected with members of the Natick community, which made the experience even more rewarding. The money raised funded NHS’s induction ceremony and supported Natick Days, which in turn allows other local clubs and organizations to fundraise as well. To prepare, I worked closely with Ms. St. Jean, attended Natick Days planning meetings, created a schedule for cake drop-offs, communicated with NHS members, and gathered all necessary materials. I collaborated with Dhwani Prakash and Sandra Kintu, and together we raised about $1,000. The day was well-organized and the booth ran smoothly. In the future, I would stagger cake drop-off times more to ensure plenty of cakes remained available toward the end of the day.

For my lead project, I helped design, modify, and beautify Natick High School’s STEM alumni website. This included updating website information, formatting website pages for readability, and ultimately sharing the website with all members of our school. I chose this for my lead project because as an aspiring scientist, I am passionate about STEM fields and eager to learn about potential career paths. This website makes it accessible and easier for students to explore possible careers in STEM and see what alumni from Natick have done in their own STEM paths. Along with the help of Jessica Liu and Nick Reichman, this project was creative, fun, and inspiring for young minds. I am excited to have this website officially published for the future and current students of NHS.

For my NHS lead project, I ran the instagram account Barstool Natick. After gaining control of the account over the summer, I grew the account to well over 2000 followers. Many things went into running this account. Some things that I did/do with this account is create and publish themes for sports games at Natick, create promotional videos/posts for sports games, communicate with other schools about themes and locations. In doing so, it has helped students from our school to show up to sports games and improve school school spirit. The account has also helped Natick High School to be recognized as the 2nd ranked student section in the entire state. A lot has been done to help this account grow to where it is, and a lot has been done to grow our school spirit to where it is today. Although my hours may be completed for this project, I will still be actively using this account to help us grow even more!

For my lead hours for the National Honors Society, I helped to run a free dinner for the homeless and anyone else who wanted to come. Me and some of the other senior hockey players bought prepped and served the food at the Natick Elks. I chose to do this as my lead project because I wanted to help people in the community who were struggling and were in need. I wanted to help people who needed a warm meal and other people to talk to. I prepared for it by letting people know what to bring and how much to bring and also assisted and overlooked the kitchen while people cooked. My friends and the other hockey players helped me a lot because I would not have been able to do the whole event without them. The dinner went really well and we got a lot of positive feedback from the community. It was also very rewarding to give back to the community and see the smiles on everyone's faces.

I helped to organize a local trash pickup on Glenn Street in Natick to make Natick a cleaner place. Our group did outreach in order to bring in other people to the project to help us pick up trash. We also went to buy supplies such as trash bags and garbage pickers. We then went to Glenn Street and picked up trash. We were able to collect 4 full bags of trash in a span of a 5 hour period and were able to give them to a DPW worker who took care of them. Overall I am proud of the work we were able to accomplish as we were able to make Natick a little bit cleaner.

For my lead project, I seeked out any parent that had a child wanting to learn guitar but could not find or afford a teacher. After someone reached out to me asking to teach their daughter, I spent the next 2 months teaching her the basic chords, shapes, and songs on guitar. I have played guitar since I was around her age, so being able to give back to the community what I was given is something truly meaningful to me. This project was successful as I was able to successfully give a thorough intro to playing the instrument, and I hope to continue sharing my experience with the guitar to anybody who may want to begin learning.

My lead project was leading an off-ice skating class for young skaters to work on their moves. This was a very fun project to work on because I got to experience teaching young skaters various different things. From this, I got to learn different ways to teach and how to demonstrate things. I had to think about things that I normally would jot have to which made me change my perspective on this. If I were to do this again, I think I would possibly do more lesson plans that have variation, so that I do not have to come up with ideas on the spot. 

For my lead project I was the coordinator for the National Honor Society Peer Tutoring Program which aims to provide free tutoring to students at Natick High School by their peers. My role focused on ensuring that the tutoring program ran smoothly, and I was tasked with pairing students in need of tutoring with a tutor in their desired subject. Overall, this program was very successful this year and I was able to match over 15 students with tutors, which allowed those students to further their learning and engage with other students at the school.

For my National Honor Society lead project, I chose to lead a martial arts workshop in the rural village of Santa Maria Tzeja, Guatemala. Small communities all around the world lack access to self defense classes, so I chose this project as a way to help others achieve self confidence while still making it fun for my students.

I completed my lead hours at the National Honor Society's annual cake walk  fundraiser on Natick days. Natick Days is a fun and engaging day, and I thought it would be an enjoyable way for me to get my hours in while also getting involved. Alongside two other peers, we ran the cake walk and NHS's tent in exchange for tickets. The tickets were collected in the end and cashed in. To prepare for the fundraiser, two other peers and I met with Ms. Marino and Mrs. St.Jean, went through all the details and made sure that we would have a poster, tables, tents and a way for members to sign up for the cake drop off. The fundraiser is the only NHS fundraiser, so it is really important because the money raised goes towards graduation stoles. Overall it was pretty successful. All members dropped off their 2 required cakes, setup and clean up went smoothly, and almost all the cakes were taken. 

For my lead project, I created an AI chatbot for the Camp Arrowhead website. Over the course of a month I created a website, and coded an AI Rag system. I designed the chatbot, the look of the website for the organization, and set boundaries for the program, ensuring that it answered every question accurately, with reliable sources either from the website or from the internet. The project was successful and embedded into the Camp Arrowhead website where parents and caregivers can find the information they need in order to register for camp quickly, and break it down to their individual needs. In the future, I hope to continue growing this program and embed it into more organizations, helping more people have easier access to information. 

For my lead project, I created the seating chart for the NHS induction ceremony and helped run the rehearsal for the ceremony. I chose to do this because I wanted to help assist with the planning and preparation for the ceremony. For this project, I assigned a seat to each NHS member to ensure they were all in alphabetical order and everyone could get on stage smoothly. I also communicated with Ms. St Jean and Ms. Chakraborty to gather the necessary materials and confirm the seating chart was correctly made. On the day of the rehearsal and ceremony, my seating plan went as intended and everyone was able to get to their seat in an orderly fashion. If I could improve anything, I would try and improve my communication skills when explaining where students should go during the rehearsal.

During my lead project, I worked closely with my club, Starfish United, to organize and lead several fundraisers supporting girls education in The Gambia. I helped plan beneficial art nights, coordinate bake sales, and gather donations. Through this time, we raised over $14,000, which was all donated to the Starfish Organization who works alongside the girls schools in The Gambia. 

My lead project was found through ServeNatick, a local nonprofit group that partners students with community service opportunities. I connected with the Natick Community Organic Farm to design and develop interactive outreach activities that can be used during the season. These activities would help people connect with the local farm and spread their influence, ultimately helping people learn about the farm and its role in promoting agricultural and educational well-being in Natick. I worked with Jacob Rothschild and Jack Stephens to complete this project, during which we developed five fully worked-out plans for the farm. I created two of them: Take-Home Seed Planting and Guess the Seed. I outlined key details, including description, audience, equipment, directions, and notes, in a reference sheet. These ideas were intended to be simple, creating a project that promoted their mission that can accommodate groups of 25-300 people. We then met with Erin O’Brien, the Communications and Outreach Director for the farm, and presented our ideas to her. We provided her with the reference sheets so that she can implement our ideas at future farm events. Overall, this project was a great opportunity to give back to a local farm and hopefully help extend its image across the community.

My lead project was making and delivering candy grams to all the Natick High School staff with another one of my peers. We bought candy and bags, assembled over 268 candy gram bags, and delivered them to all the staff before winter vacation. I chose this project because I believe it's important to show gratitude towards all the staff members who make Natick High School the wonderful place it is. In this project, my partner and I bought candy and bags for the candy grams. We designed, printed, and cut out cards for the candy gram bags. We then assembled over 268 candy gram bags and delivered them the week of winter break. We also worked with Ms. Daigle in the front office to obtain a staff list. Overall, it went well and we were able to complete this project in a timely manner. If I were to do this again in the future, I would communicate with my partner earlier and closer as this project had a quick turnaround.

For my lead project, I helped out at the step-up night for rising freshmen, answering their questions about the National Honors Society. In addition I created pamphlets that comprise all essential information about the NHS and provide students with resources that can answer any additional questions. I chose to do this lead because I understand the need to share information about the NHS to potential future members because many of them face confusions about the process of becoming a member and requirements for maintaining that membership. This project successfully promoted National Honors Society for rising freshmen and educated them about the requirements for joining the membership, providing them with enough time to fulfill those requirements before their junior year of high school. In order to prepare for it, I designed and prepared dozens of pamphlets for the step-up night. Ariana Kabolizadeh assisted me in this project by creating a poster and answering students’ questions along with me at the step-up night. The night went great and a lot of students took pamphlets to refer to it when they need it! I would not do anything differently in the future, and i would also use the same design of pamphlets because those resemble the values of the National Honors Society and contain all the essential information.

I worked with Melanie Lempitski to aet up and run a long jump clinic for middle schoolers.  We wanted to offer extra instruction to those middle schools interested in jumping and share a sport that we are passionate about. The first thing we had to do was to reach out to the middle school track coaches to gather interest. Then, we communicated with parents and athletes about where and when we were hosting our clinics. We set up drills and prepared the pits before the athletes arrived. When the clinic started, we led a warm up and ran the drills. At the end of each clinic, each athlete took a full jump to track their progress. All of the athletes showed improvement after the clinics.

I worked with Abby Matychak to start a food drive outside of Roche Brothers. This was very rewarding work and we donated a total of 700 lbs of food and hygiene products to the Natick Food Pantry. We chose to do this for our project because food pantries get a lot of donations around Thanksgiving but are often forgotten during the rest of the year. I think that our donations made a big difference, especially because we got a lot of hygiene products and those can’t be bought with food stamps. 

For my lead project, I organized a craft supply drive with a friend during the days we volunteered after school at Memorial Elementary ASAP. For this project, we picked out important and useful craft supplies that any child could use - such as markers, coloring books, pencils - which were provided by the ASAP staff. On the day I volunteered, I helped kids assemble the supplies into care packages that were eventually donated to Family Promise in Natick. We ran this drive for a week in March and once all the packages were made, we donated them to families with children who could not afford arts and craft materials. This project was a good opportunity to practice my leadership skills by running a project within the program I volunteered at, while also helping to engage the children in meaningful community service.

For my lead project I ran and organized a food drive at Planet Gymnastics for the Natick Food Pantry. As an athlete, I understand the importance of healthy food so I decided to have a food drive at Planet Gymnastics to not only give back to the community, but also teach young athletes the importance of nutritional food. To promote the food drive I made flyers that were distributed at Planet and I left a bin inside where families could donate non-perishable foods. Overall, this project was very successful with the donations filling the entire bin when I brought it to the Natick Food Pantry and young athletes learned the importance of fueling their body with healthy foods. 

During this lead project I worked with my mom, who is a successful small business owner of a small business, The Sleepy Baker. What I worked with her to complete was an inventory system for her in order to keep track of her supplies and ingredients on a weekly basis. This proved to be a bit of a challenge, as her workload is inconsistent from week-to-week depending on how many orders she gets, as well as the size and nature of them. She often has to take time out of her work days to go to the store and buy some item or ingredient that she didn’t know needed replacing until it ran out. This is also inconvenient because she rents her kitchen space, and has to clock in and out every time she leaves. With this new inventory system, which still needs more work even after completing these lead hours, she will be able to create a weekly list of ingredients to buy so she will always know if she has the necessary supplies to fulfill her orders, without having to leave after already clocking in and starting her work.

For my lead project I worked with two other National Honor Society members, Cailyn Deltufo and Alexandra Miller, to fundraise for an animal charity. After some research, we chose to raise money for the Friends of Animals charity because it’s reliable and it benefits a good cause. We created online and physical advertisements that asked for any donations that people were willing to make. This ensured that we were reaching a wider audience and raising more donations. It also helped us spread information on a larger scale and hopefully raise awareness on the topic. After that I went around on my own to personally inform people on the cause and ask them if they would be willing to donate any money. In the end I raised a total of $150 on my own and then combined my money with the other two members to collectively donate $473 to the Friends of Animals charity.

For my lead project me and 3 other NHS students identified and shared different lead project opportunities to other students so they could complete their lead hours. I chose to do this for my lead project because as we were trying to think of what to do for our project we realized other people are probably struggling with this too, and we realized we could solve both issues by making our lead project helping others to find lead projects. By doing this we helped to connect students to projects that were making a difference throughout our community. My role in the project was to organize the different opportunities on the ServeMA website as well as create the forms for people to sign up. In the future I think it would be important to set up this opportunity earlier so that we have more time to find opportunities and more people can benefit from the program.