Community Service Award
Submit your Applications to be considered for the Community Service Award:
Every year since 1996, the Junior League of Greenwich presents a Community Service Award to a local teen girl. The award recognizes an outstanding local high school student who exemplifies the Junior League’s mission and whose volunteer activities show a significant and sustained commitment to community service and leadership.
Eligibility:
- Female Student in Grade 9-12
- Attends School or Resides in Greenwich, CT
- Active Volunteer – this can be for school, an outside organization, or self-initiative.
- Submit Application Form
- Submit two Reference letters from individuals (not family) familiar with the students Community Service.
Applications Due: April 1, 2024
PAST RECIPIENTS
2023 Recipient:
Sum Ling “Celine” Fong – Celine then a Junior at Rye Country Day School and resided in Greenwich. Celine enjoys working within the intersection of art and community building and one of her projects was a partnership with the Greenwich PD Special Victims Unit where she designed and painted a mural in the waiting room for the SVU. Celine plans to use the money awarded by the JLG to enlarge and improve a project she began as a member of the First Selectman’s Youth Commission called Art for Activism. This venture encourages artistic expression and creativity which raising awareness for social justice issues. In 2022, she partnered with the Bruce Museum to host an online exhibition and the winners received Bruce Museum memberships. This award would enable Celine to expand the advertising and publicity for the exhibit to attract more artists and she expects to create a grant for winners to experience master classes and establish mentorships.
2022 Recipient:
Jennifer Di Capua, then an 11th grade student at Sacred Heart Greenwich. Some of Jennifer’s volunteer roles include serving as a grade level community service ambassador, Founder and President of the Women in Leadership Club, and founding member and Head of the Middle School Peer Branch Committee as well as the 3DNYC Summer Service participant and Scared Heart Greenwich summer outreach volunteer. Perhaps one of Jennifer’s most interesting pursuits is her founding and development of an app and website entitled Salud Por Todos. This platform enables Latinx immigrants to easily access healthcare providers. Jennifer plans to use the award to develop educational programs for immigrants.
2021 Recipient:
Stephanie Busani, then a junior at Greenwich High School. Stephanie is an outstanding volunteer for Neighbor to Neighbor who dedicated in excess of 2000 service hours to the organization. Additionally, she spearheaded her own program, The Monthly Mission, to help provide feminine hygiene products for women in need. Stephanie has also been a volunteer performer at Off-Beat Players, and is preparing to be a future volunteer EMT. Stephanie plans to use $800 of the grant towards her college education where she plans to study nursing, and she will use $200 to support Neighbor to Neighbor.
2019 Recipient
Stephanie Guza, a senior at Sacred Heart Greenwich. Stephanie founded the Help End Period Poverty Project. The goal of this project and school club is to spread awareness, educate others, and provide free feminine hygiene products to women in needStephanie organized three fundraisers at her school raising two thousand dollars’ worth of feminine products to donate to low-income and homeless women.She plans to use the award money to purchase and donate more menstrual products for organizations and shelters in Greenwich such as Neighbor to Neighbor. Stephanie will attend University of Richmond in the fall and hopes to expand her project to her new community.
2018 Recipient:
Christine Kao, then a senior at Greenwich Academy. Christine has been involved in the community as Vice President of Safe Rides, a Senior Ambassador for Kids Helping Kids Stamford, working as an Assistant Ice Skating coach for the Skyliners Synchronized Ice Skating Team and as a STEM Camp Counselor at the India Cultural Center. But most impressive was her commitment to teaching flute at Waterside Elementary School. As a visiting concert band teacher for the after school program, Christine has led small group instruction in flute for anywhere from three to five students every Friday for the past three years.
2017 Recipient
2016 Recipients (2)
The first recipient, Julianna Song, then a senior at Greenwich Academy. Her passion for volunteering began in the 8th grade when our recipient took a year out of school, and traveled with her family to 10 countries working at nonprofits that her parents have supported over the years. In 2014 she was awarded the Congressional Gold Award after having completed 450 hours of voluntary public service within four years. She volunteers with numerous organizations, but said the organization that she was most committed to is Lily of the Valley Orphanage in South Africa. She took her experience another tremendous step further and created a website called www.nogifttoosmall.com that included a personal blog with photos of her volunteer experiences, as well as a donation page. To date, she has used this as a platform to raise in excess of $100,000. She and her brother applied for grants and were given $20,000 for Lily of the Valley’s continued work.
2015 Recipient
Izabela Horzempa, Greenwich High School. She was a member of the National Honor Society, a national gold medalist and a silver state medalist for her ceramic art work. She raised more money as Homecoming Chair than anyone previously. In addition, she tutored disadvantaged youth. Izabela’s high school guidance counselor stated she is “unequivocally the most impressive and amazing young person I have met in the sixteen years as a guidance counselor”. Izabela was accepted to Fairfield University and uses the Community Service Award to help fund her college tuition.
2014 Recipient
Gabrielle Liflander, Greenwich High School. Gabrielle stood out for her significant and sustained community service and leadership, but also her fulfillment of the JLG’s mission of developing the potential of women (in this case girls). Her Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Math Girls Add Up created curriculum about famous women in STEM fields for an after school program at Waterside School in Stamford. She is attending Johns Hopkins to study Engineering and we look forward to seeing the next amazing contributions this dedicated and talented young woman develops in her future communities.
2013 Recipient
Stephanie Williamson, Greenwich High School. Since her freshman year in high school, Stephanie has been an active volunteer at the Basset Hound Club of America and recipient of an outstanding achievement award for Therapy Dog Work. She started a program at Cos Cob Library that allows struggling young readers to practice reading aloud to Rosie, her basset hound. In addition, Stephanie volunteers at Greenwich Hospital and is editor in chief for the GHS yearbook, and a bronze star Girl Scout.
2012 Recipient
Meei Hayashida – Meei does extensive work with Abilis, a nonprofit that works with people with disabilities in Greenwich and Stamford. Specifically, Meei’s role is to help a teen, with a disability, access the arts curriculum at Abilis. Miss Hayashida plans to utilize the award to fund a music program at Abilis that will provide more instruments to the teenagers she works with, as well as secure performance space.
2011 Recipient
Caela R. Murphy a senior from Greenwich High School is the Co-founder and Co-President of Go Green!, the Greenwich High School Environmental Awareness Club. When she isn’t improving the environment, she is hard at work as a GHS AVID Peer Tutor and Peer Mentor, Anti-Defamation League Names Day Team Facilitator, Bruce Museum Seaside Center Touch Tank volunteer, GHS Habitat for Humanity Club member, Red Cross Youth Council Member and a volunteer for her church’s soup kitchen.
2010 Recipients (2)
Lucy Williams from Greenwich Academy introduced a program called Kidz Kitchen at Family Centers, Inc. This summer, healthy choice, cooking camp has run for 7 years. In addition to this, she and her sister, started the organization Relight CT, to get energy saving light bulbs to low-income housing residents and help reduce the car- bon footprint of those homes.
Elizabeth Buffone, also from Greenwich Academy, was the Founder and President of Greenwich Academy’s Do Something Club, which looks for needs locally that are not being serviced, and designs projects to meet them. As a result of her success, she was invited to attend the Impact Academy, hosted by America’s Promise Alliance, as one of only 150 youth leaders from across the country.
2009 Recipient
Margaret Beneville, from Greenwich High School who founded the “Read to Nora” project, which was dedicated to the memory of Margaret’s good friend who died of cancer at the age of 14. She raised more than $8,500 for cancer research.
2008 Recipient
Lauri Ng, truly exemplifies extraordinary volunteer achievement. Lauri has earned a 4.5 GPA while maintaining committed involvement in a wide-range of volunteer activities. Locally, Lauri serves as president and mentor for the Big Brother, Big Sister of Greenwich. She volunteers at Greenwich Adult Day Care and Meals on Wheels. She also serves as a peer tutor and mentor with the Stand by Me Program at Greenwich High School and is involved with the Student Assistance Team. Beyond Greenwich borders, Lauri has volunteered in El Salvador on a mission trip to rebuild houses. Lauri truly embraces her volunteer work and states, “Community service has been one of the most meaningful aspects of my life; I continue to volunteer because it promotes growth in my community and communities abroad…I have learned that in order to make a difference in the world, you need to help one person at a time and strengthen one community at a time.”
2007 Recipients (2)
Leah Milbauer, as a sophomore at Greenwich High School two years ago, co- founded her own charitable organization, Art from the Heart. After years as an active member of Habitat for Humanity, Leah became concerned about the plight of children struggling with cancer and chemotherapy and wanted to create some- thing to brighten their lives. Working with the Circle of Care for families with cancer, Leah and a friend co-founded Art from the Heart. They redecorate the bedrooms of young cancer patients. Now Co-President, Leah has opened two more chapters of her organization in local Connecticut towns. An honors student, Leah has volunteered with several other organizations and has maintained leadership roles at school as well. We salute Leah for her com- passion and initiative to brighten the lives of those in need.
Ayesha Samant, as a freshman at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, was a founding member of the Barat Foundation, a student-run philanthropic organization dedicatedto helping local charities. There she developed the foundation’s mission statement and by-laws. Ayesha is the Co-President of the African Task Force, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness of social, political and health problems in Africa. Ayesha was instrumental in bringing Kick AIDS Grass Roots Soccer to Sacred Heart. This past summer, she traveled to Haiti through the Project Pierre Toussaint to work with children living on the streets. We salute Ayesha for her leadership and commitment to making this world a better place.
2006 Recipients (2)
Sarah Aspinwall was an honors student who main- tained a 3.5+ G.P.A. at the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Sarah initiated, led or participated in a dazzling list of community projectsranging from assisting individual elderly or less fortunate neighbors to fundraisers and walks for large local and national organizations. She embodied her school’s value of dedi- cating one’s life to others, organizing food drives, collecting 7,000+ pounds of food for shelters and the homeless in NYC, even organizing visits to the city for Midnight Runs to deliver food to those living on the streets. She refereed for Special Olympics, walked for breast cancer research, collected shoes and toys for needy children in Africa and for local underprivileged families, and raised funds for hurricane and tsunami victims. A high point in her voluntarism was Sacred Heart’s selection of Sarah to be a Pilgrim Helper at Lourdes, France where she worked with mentally and physically impaired people. This life-changing experience confirmed her desire to dedicate her life to others.
Katherine Wesley, a Greenwich High School student, was the second recipient. She was an honors student and National Honor Society member who maintained a 4.0 G.P.A. Katherine enjoyed sports at school, playing soccer and participating in Varsity Indoor and Varsity Outdoor track, where she was Freshman Captain. Katherine also sang in the Concert Choir and was a Peer Mentor. She was accepted to the Summer Exploration at Yale program as a tenth grader. Her contributions to the local community included Habitat for Humanity, Christ Church Youth Council, the Episcopal Relief Development group, and the Red Cross Youth Council. Katherine created and implemented a program to raise money for disasters through various fundraisers called the Radical Relief program at the Red Cross, resulting in the single most successful teen fundraising program at the local chapter. She has received a number of awards for her efforts on behalf of the Red Cross.
2005 Recipient
The recipient of the 2004 JLG Community Service Award was Emily Weissler, a senior at Greenwich High School. Her cumulative GPA was a staggering 4.0 plus, while carrying a full load of honors classes! Since her freshman year in high school, she performed over 400 hours of community service and dedicated another 100 hours to diversity programs. Throughout her school career, Emily has been honored for her outstanding citizenship, her mentorship of the freshman class at Greenwich High School, her time spent building a garden and playground in Quebec, her term as President of the Temple Sholom branch of the United Synagogue Youth Program and her work as a tutor for the GHS ABC Program. Emily also worked as a student guide for the traveling national Anne Frank exhibit at Greenwich High School and has worked to promote tolerance and diversity in her school community. She spent more than 200 hours providing childcare and enrichment activities for children whose mothers are clients of the residential program at LMG, Connecticut’s largest substance abuse program. For her efforts, she was awarded the Youth Volunteer Award by LMG.