At the Brentwood Community Council (BCC)’s monthly meeting on March 3, four students from local high schools were honored with the Brentwood Student Civic Award.
This community award is annually given to students who demonstrate outstanding initiative, leadership, innovation, and dedication toward improving the lives of others.
Local dignitaries, including Mayor Eric Garcetti’s representative Daniel Tamm, Assemblyman Richard Bloom’s representative Stephanie Cohen, and Councilman Mike Bonin’s senior counsel Norman Kulla, joined the BCC in recognizing four students from four different local schools.
The selection process for the award begins with student nominations that each school then chooses, with the BCC ultimately narrowing down the pool of recipients.
This year the honorees are Dana Wood (Archer School for Girls), Paris Korman (Brentwood School), Lester Gopar (University High School), and Annie Loy (Palisades Charter High School).
Caroline Kelly, the Public Education Representative on the BCC, provided Brentwood News with more detailed reasons as to why the BCC ultimately decided to present Wood, Korman, Gopar, and Loy with the awards after reviewing information from the initial nominators.
“[Wood] received the award for her longstanding and dedicated service to the Archer School community service board,” Kelly said. “She frequently attended monthly events at the Daybreak Women’s Shelter in Santa Monica to cook meals, organize activities, and contribute her creativity and good humor to the women living at the shelter.”
Wood proved her dedication to the Annual Archer Blood Drive by working “in close liaison with the Saint John’s Health Center” and recruiting “both student and faculty donors with remarkable alacrity,” which resulted in a successful event.
As for Brentwood School’s Paris Korman, her focus was on serving the environment and the youth.
“[Korman] volunteered over 200 hours to Heal the Bay, both as a youth educator at their Santa Monica Aquarium and in the field helping to lead their beach clean-ups,” Kelly said. “She also led efforts to offer after-school activities and a homework club to the under-served children residing at Westwood Transition Village.”
Korman also volunteered at an international level by helping to fundraise for the Khushi Charity School in India and established a Khushi Club on her campus to spread awareness about supporting impoverished children in India.
Lester Gopar of University High School, on the other hand, was unafraid to take hyper-local action after becoming motivated by the dirty streets in his very own neighborhood. Gopar took the initiative to organize a group called Teens Clean LA and “began tackling the problem one street at a time.”
Kelly said that Gopar organized meetings, led Saturday clean-ups, and purchased materials out-of-pocket.
“He is committed to keeping Teens LA running in Los Angeles and launching a new, similarly focused group wherever he goes to college,” Kelly said.
Although Annie Loy of Palisades Charter High School was not present at the BCC meeting, she “received the award for her “work ethic, tenacity, generosity and spirit” as a representative of her school’s Long Term Strategic Planning Committee.
On top of planning events on campus, Loy “has raised funds for several charitable organizations” in addition to writing for the school paper and taking numerous honors and AP classes.
Each award winner received a medal and certificate of recognition from the BCC as well as from a variety of prominent political offices, including the Mayor’s Office, the State Assembly Member, and the Senate.
For more information on the BCC, visit brentwoodcommunitycouncil.org.
