This year's recipient, who receives a $1,000 scholarship for initiative and leadership in community service, is Starkville High School senior Claire Crawford, of Starkville, Mississippi. She is selected for her outstanding dedication to helping children born with cleft lips and palates. Through fund raising and speaking, Claire has raised over $14,500 to purchase “cleft teddy bears” to be donated locally, nationally, and internationally to individuals and hospitals in collaboration with The Cleft Palate Foundation. In addition to giving out her “Claire’s Bears,” Claire, who was born with a clef lip and palate, is involved in advocacy and education of cleft patients, families, and media professionals. She initiated an Operation Smile Student Association at her school, which has now raised funds for nearly 80 surgeries for a total of more than $19,000. In 2008, she traveled to Cebu, in the Philippines, as one of two students on a 50-person medical team, where she organized hundreds of cleft children for a screening process to receive medical evaluations. During the trip, she was able to give nearly a hundred bears to children to help comfort them through their surgeries.
The Robert Sheppard Leadership Award was established in memory of NSHSS Vice President Robert Sheppard, who worked for twenty years with college and high school honor societies. He was a great friend dedicated to helping young people and spent his life devoting himself to volunteer service.
We are pleased this year to award $250 to these outstanding finalists for the Robert Sheppard Leadership Award:
Richard Kennard, also of Starkville High School, in Starkville, Mississippi, for his founding of “Project Armstrong,” now in its fifth year, which benefits children with cancer who come with their families from around the world for treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
Svyatoslav Petrov, of Ravenscroft High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, for his determination to help improve the significant health needs of the world’s abandoned children. Through cooperation with the Duke Raleigh Hospital, he developed a program called Preserving a Nation (PAN) to function as an international healthcare and education program to teach a young generation of Russian orphans the habits and skills of healthy living, raising $5,500 to fund the program.
Shelby Smith, of Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, California, for her dedication to promoting literacy, through her “Lights on for Literacy” program. She works tirelessly in her community to help stamp out illiteracy by putting together community symposiums using a variety of customized strategies, including phonics, vocabulary tools, games, independent reading time, one-on-one tutoring time, and celebrations when struggling readers reach their goals.
Max Sussman, of Eastlake High School in Sammamish, Washington, for his efforts in the fight against Leukemia, through his involvement in the Big Climb, a fund raiser held annually at the Columbia Center in Seattle, Washington. The Big Climb requires its participants to race up 1,311 stairs (or 69 stories), in the Northwest's tallest building. Max is one of the most successful fund raisers to participate. For seven years, he has raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to honor the memory of a childhood friend, which has driven him to raise thousands of dollars for this cause.