Local High School Student Wins "Silent Servant" Award
Last updated 2/10/2021 at 9:30am
Yessenia Marin, Borrego Springs High School Senior
The stories of those who quietly serve others often go unsung. That's why the Peter R. Marsh Foundation created the Silent Servant award: to recognize that "students who selflessly and quietly serve others are indeed the most valuable citizens of their communities". Among this year's award winners is Borrego Springs High School senior, Yessenia Marin.
"Yessenia Marin has been an active member of the Borrego High School community, participating in fundraising, organizing school events, and being a member of the student government," said Borrego HS Principal, Victoria Baay.
"Besides doing the required 60 hours of community service, which she completed early in her High School career, she continued to volunteer in the community. Our Little League was in desperate need of people to work with children on teams and organizing and working in the snack bar. Yessenia would go after school to help with both."
Yessenia is also a member of the Soroptomist International club at school and worked diligently to raise funds for projects in India and local programs that serve the Borrego Springs community.
Families in our community have lost jobs and are facing hard times. Several groups have come together to host a food bank for families in need. Yessenia has volunteered to work at the food bank since it opened, assisting families to make sure they have food. Yessenia works from the heart and wants Borrego Springs to be a better place for all families. This belief in service has led her to want a career in law enforcement to better help people.
"These student award-recipients have successfully set-aside the modern excesses of social and technical clutter and connected with the intrinsic qualities of their minds and hearts," says Peter Marsh, Foundation Chairman.
"They are real-time youthful champions who continually affirm that empathy is a key element of the compassionate and peaceful society we all desire and authenticate that empathy must be intentionally cultivated in our homes and schools. The Foundation's goal is to continually identify, recognize and inspire student-servants and to encourage parents and educators to utilize these worthy super-stars as teachable-moment models."
The award is open to all American high schools. Already this year they have recognized students from New York to California, and Hawaii to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
