Alumni Spotlight: Paloma O'Leary, Silver Award Holder
In our Alumni Spotlight series, we highlight outstanding Award Holders and share their experience. We hope to celebrate their accomplishments and inspire others in the Award family.
For our Summer 2024 Spotlight, we will hear from Paloma O’Leary, a Silver Award Holder living in Washington, DC. She completed the Silver Level through our virtual Open Award Center.
Tell us a little about yourself!
A native of the Washington, DC area (Maryland) and of Colombian-American heritage, I am passionate about environmental science, music, and global community service. I recently graduated from The Madeira School in McLean, VA, and am attending Georgetown University in the fall where I plan to major in Environment and Sustainability studies.
What were your activities and goals for your Award Level?
Voluntary Service: I worked as a teacher’s assistant, both at the Fundación Pies Descalzos school in Cartagena, Colombia, and at a local early childhood education center in Virginia. I worked with children from ages 7-14 and helped teach English classes as well as Spanish classes.
Skills: For my skills section, I decided to delve into my passion for music and dedicated time to writing songs and taking voice lessons to help improve my technique. I also composed a bilingual album called An Ocean Away which I released on Spotify, YouTube and other platforms, which has tracks related to the sea including one song about ocean conservation. I worked with a friend to produce music videos for each of the songs which we filmed on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where I have been working with a marine biologist there. I also started taking French lessons outside of school.
Physical Recreation: For my physical part of this journey, I focused on doing lower impact activities such as pilates, tennis, walking, or jogging. I have an autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s, which inhibits me from being able to do high intensity workouts for long periods of time, so through this Award, I was able to find what kind of exercise truly works for me.
Adventurous Journey: For our journey, my team and I traveled to South Florida where we participated in several exciting activities during our exploration. Our main goal of the Adventurous Journey was to learn more about ways to protect the environment to prevent further harm and pollution to our oceans. We camped at a local site and participated in a kayaking trip and a beach hike with marine biologists where we learned all about Miami’s marine habitat and how all the organisms live in harmony but also how they are facing environmental threats because of climate change. We then participated in a trash clean up at Crandon Park, organized by Miami EcoAdventures in partnership with Debris Free Oceans, an organization that helps communities reuse plastics and waste to extend their lifecycle and prevent it from harming marine habitats. We spent a couple hours on the beach (in the rain!)collecting trash, finding items from bottle caps to car bumpers. It was fascinating to see what kinds of items washed up on shore, and it really made us contemplate just how much waste we individually produce. Once we wrapped up the collecting process, we went back to the center and sorted through the debris, making piles for each of the categories to see what could and could not be recycled.
What did you learn about yourself through the Award?
On my Award journey, I learned how good it feels to enjoy and blend various aspects of life such as exercise, community service, and skills like my passion for music, and how important they are for shaping me as a person. Without these parts of my life, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, so developing consistency in these practices really helped highlight their importance in my life and I discovered a kind of drive and inspiration that will stay with me forever.
Would you recommend the Award to others? If so, why?
I absolutely would recommend this Award to others. This Award really helped show me who I was and gave me confidence in the things that bring me joy. As teenagers, I think we collectively lose confidence and become insecure and therefore can lose touch with passions or routines we once had when we were younger and not active on social media. I truly believe this Award can help people reconnect with themselves and reach their potential, defeating those voices of doubt.
Do you have any tips or advice to share with Award Participants and Alumni?
A tip I have is to just try something you’ve always wanted to do! For example, before this award, I had never done pilates and had always wanted to. It’s something that I will continue to do. I also loved blending my love for music with my passion for environmental science.
If you would like more information on how to participate in the Award, please contact info@usaward.org today!