Maria Parra

Four years ago Maria came from Venezuela and left behind family
members that were very close to her. While coping with her family’s
struggles moving to a new country, Maria had a hard time adjusting to
her new school and became anxious about having to learn English. She
felt uncertain about her future and struggled with mental health issues
as a result. Fortunately, she started volunteering at her church and this
helped Maria find hope and improve in school. She became a hard
working student and started taking advanced courses and is now the
Vice President of the Best Buddies Club. Maria wants to end the social
isolation of all those students in school with intellectual and
developmental disabilities and works to builds friendships to improve
the level of inclusion on campus. Maria is also part of HIP and does
classroom presentations to empower teens by teaching them how to cope with anxiety, help a friend with depression, report sexual assault, and
support a bullied classmate. Whenever there is a student who feels out
of the group or depressed, Maria steps in to encourage and motivate
and share how she overcame those struggles herself. Maria has used
her own hardship to help others and is sure to continue making a
positive impact in the lives of all those she meets.