Illinois' Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 12th Annual National Awards Program

Business Wire, Feb 13, 2007

Barrington Hills and Wheaton students earn $1,000 awards, engraved medallions and trip to nation's capital

Honors also bestowed on other top youth volunteers in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Rishi Sethi, 18, of Barrington Hills and Kendall Ciesemier, 14, of Wheaton today were named Illinois' top two youth volunteers for 2007 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 12th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Rishi was nominated by Barrington High School in Barrington, and Kendall was nominated by Franklin Middle School in Wheaton. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees - one middle level and one high school youth - from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2007 at that time.

Rishi, a senior at Barrington High School, founded the Barrington School District Chess Program nine years ago, and has since helped introduce the game of chess to schools throughout his district and hosted chess tournaments that have raised $10,000 for local and international charities. Rishi, who won a trophy at a national tournament in fourth grade, started a chess club at his elementary school because no one else there played the game. He launched another club when he entered middle school, and began recruiting club members to teach chess to other students. To challenge his fellow players and involve the community in his program, Rishi also began running chess tournaments in places such as a grocery store, a nursing home, a church and hospitals.

Today all of the schools in his school district have chess clubs, and Rishi's program has helped establish clubs in India, Mexico, Chile and Borneo, as well. In addition, his tournaments have raised thousands of dollars for charities such as the Adult Literacy Center, Citizens for Conservation, the Spina Bifida Foundation, Red Cross for Katrina Relief, and Heifer International. Besides teaching new skills and raising money, Rishi's program has given local students valuable exposure to different cultures. "Chess is popular in the rest of the world, and it can help students in Barrington connect with other cultures," he said. "It is exciting to find a common language such as chess with which we can communicate with people all over the world."

Kendall, an eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School, formed a nonprofit organization that has raised $50,000 since 2004 to benefit AIDS orphans in Africa. Kendall, who has faced her own struggles as she underwent two liver transplants, was inspired to volunteer by watching an Oprah Winfrey TV special about the African AIDS epidemic. What she saw stunned her. "Some of the children were living alone, taking care of younger siblings," she said. "Kids my age were taking the place of their parents because their parents had died of AIDS. I knew I needed to do something."

Initially, Kendall used her own money to "adopt" an AIDS orphan through World Vision, but then she started to think bigger. While recovering from one of her operations, she asked for cash donations for AIDS orphans in lieu of gifts or flowers. Soon after, she and her family established "Kids Caring 4 Kids," an ongoing effort to raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa through a variety of projects, including a Web site that accepts donations and the sale of T-shirts that Kendall helped design. Kendall has sent the money she has raised to a village in Zambia to help pay for education, food and medicine. She also speaks frequently to community groups about the AIDS epidemic in Africa and reaches out to other young people to make them aware of the crisis. "I want people to see how small a contribution it takes to make a difference," said Kendall.

In addition, the program judges recognized eight other Illinois students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Bethany Figura, 18, of St. Charles, a senior at St. Charles North High School, helped coordinate a 12-hour dance-a-thon that raised almost $30,000 to support Special Olympics. Bethany served on the executive board of Project: DANCE! and was responsible for maintaining the morale of the dancers over the course of the event.

Tayler McGillis, 12, of Toluca, a home-schooled seventh-grader, established and maintains 15 permanent recycling centers throughout his community, and has collected more than 16,000 pounds of aluminum cans for recycling. Tayler donated the $9,000 he earned from reclaiming the recycled aluminum to Habitat for Humanity.

Brittany Metz, 17, of Mundelein, a senior at Mundelein High School, created a new student leadership program at her school that replaced the student council and included community service and student outreach activities. As co-president of the new program, Brittany is responsible for directing meetings, communicating with school administrators, helping to plan events, and making presentations to the Board of Education.