The Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter, NSDAR, presented the DAR Good Citizen award for New Canaan High School to senior Lauren Serena last month.
Lauren was chosen “because she is very active in school and our community, giving her full commitment and dedication, working with both the youth and elderly,” according to a release.
She is a senior leader in two youth groups and volunteers with New Canaan High School Charity Link Club and the New Covenant House of Hospitality. She is president of the New Canaan Youth Adult Partnership Board, a community service organization whose mission is to provide community activities for youth and the elderly. In addition to organizing fund-raisers, she enjoys getting together with her friends on the board to run the annual YAPD “Senior Prom” at a local nursing home. She is also on the production team of the weekly NCHS News program, and has volunteered to take a leading role in the Names Can Really Hurt anti-bullying program at the school. She has been a varsity cheerleader for three years, and is a coach for the NCHS youth cheerleading team. She is also the president of the school’s French Club.
The DAR Good Citizen award and scholarship contest is intended to encourage and reward the qualities of a good citizen. It is open to a male or female senior class student. Only one student per year may be honored as a school’s DAR Good Citizen.
According to the DAR, the student selected must have the qualities of dependability (which includes truthfulness, loyalty and punctuality); service (which includes cooperation, courtesy and consideration of others); leadership (which includes personality, self-control and ability to assume responsibility); and patriotism (which includes unselfish interest in family, school, community and nation) to an outstanding degree.
The student is then eligible, if he/she wishes, to enter the DAR Good Citizens scholarship contest. It consists of two parts. Part 1 —personal and 70% — consists of the student describing how he/she has tried to manifest the qualities of a good citizen. It is submitted along with their official grade transcript and two letters of recommendation. Part II — an essay and 30% — is administered under the supervision of a faculty member. Each contest entry is evaluated by independent, non-DAR judges. The winning entry is advanced through state and national levels of judging.
More info: NewCanaanDAR.org, DAR.org
Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter, NSDAR, Regent Diane Wells with DAR Good Citizen award-winner, New Canaan High School senior Lauren Serena, and committee chairman Barbara McNulty.