Boys and Girls Clubs of America announces National Youth of the Year

A seven-year member of Boys and Girls Club of Pawtucket, R.I., Carolina Correa is the first Hispanic female and 63rd youth to receive the title of National Youth of the Year and will serve a one-year term as the national teen spokesperson for the 4.5 million youth served annually by Boys & Girls Clubs through Club membership and community outreach.

Correa recently graduated from Charles E. Shea High School, where she mentored freshmen and tutored other students. She was nominated to the City of Pawtucket’s Teen Hall of Fame, received the Rhode Island Presidential Student of the Year Award and was inducted into the National Honor Society of High School Scholars. She also graduated in the top 3 percent of her class.

At her Boys and Girls Club, the young Latina learned English, met new friends and found her niche in the aquatics program. Correa was named most valuable swimmer three times and created a program to teach the basics of swimming to inner city youth.

Correa has dedicated many hours to community service projects, including tutoring immigrants who were preparing to take the U.S. citizenship exam. An aspiring child psychologist, she now attends Assumption College in Massachusetts.

Correa’s fellow 2009 Youth of the Year finalists are: Aneka Billings, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast (Miss.); LaQuita Grinnage, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee (Wis.); Christney Kpodo, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound (Wash.); and Tony Spears, Boys and Girls Club of Bellville (Texas).

Source: BGCA