Youth Volunteer of the Year Award

The Youth Volunteer of the Year award is presented to an outstanding high school student who has demonstrated a strong commitment to helping others and who serves as an example to their peers.

Youth Volunteer of the Year for 2021

Amy Vargas-Aguillon
Youth Volunteer of the Year

Amy Vargas-Aguillon is a senior at the John Handley High School. As the daughter of two Mexican immigrants, she will be the first in her family to attend a college or university. Amy desires to study epigenetics with the goal of enhancing the lives of those suffering from incorrectly silenced or activated genes. While at Handley, Amy has amassed over 563 service hours through the Interact Club, 62 service hours as a Junior Volunteer at the Winchester Medical Center, 50.75 service hours through Key Club, and 10 service hours through the National Honors Society. She has led as the elected Interact Vice President, elected Fundraiser Coordinator of Key Club, elected as Social Media Specialist of Women With a Purpose (WWAP), elected Class of 2021 Historian in the Student Government Association (SGA), and is an applied and admitted member of the Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) and the National Honors Society (NHS).

As Vice President of the Interact Club, Amy has the responsibilities of informing the entire club on upcoming service events, conferences, Interact dues, and last minute reminders via interpersonal communication and informative posts on Google Classroom. She also organizes and records the hours of service and meeting attendance for each of the members in the Interact Club. During her years in Interact, Amy has mentored “littles,” freshmen who entered the club under her supervision, raised funds for the American Cancer Society through the Relay for Life committee, attended leadership conferences, reached gold membership every year, has developed time and people management skills, has enriched her life with local community and world affairs, and has consistently placed service above self.

Due to the pandemic, Amy has had to pioneer COVID adaptations. Creating completely new events from scratch as most events, such as festivals, were cancelled this year. Service events, officer meetings, and Interact meetings now all have to strictly adhere to covid guidelines from our school, city, and state.

Past recipients include: