Inspire Example

 INSPIRE Program 2018 Recap: Blake Behrens

MY PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT

To help kids with differing abilities feel confident and believe in themselves through my words and my actions. I will behave like a leader and demonstrate to my community that my abilities and those of others whom are different are not limited.

MY INSPIRE YEAR:  2018

I was excited to start another year being a teen mentor. My goals for the year were to:

❏ Get straight A’s ❏ Raise $1,000 for CNL
❏ Participate in at least 4 fitness activities
❏ Give 100 hours of service to my community ❏ Get a Varsity letter on my high school track team

For the most part, I not only achieved these goals, but surpassed them and am very proud to be able to contribute to the mission of Camp No Limits in a meaningful way. I want to thank my mentor, David Harrell, for all of his guidance and support this year!

On the following pages, I have outlined how I have fulfilled the role of an INSPIRE leader and achieved my personal goals while always demonstrating the INSPIRE guiding principles of leadership, attitude, responsibility, respect, educate, empower, support and service. I hope you enjoy reading about my INSPIRing year.

Community Engagement

Over the course of 2018, I gave more than 100 hours of service to my community.  I continued to volunteer weekly at my local public library. I worked at the circulation desk every week helping at the circulation desk. I also helped families to locate and identify the reading materials that they were in search of. I have now been a weekly volunteer at the Quince Orchard library for more than three years, giving more than 300 hours of my time to the community.

In 2018, I also volunteered at the Adventist HealthCare Amputee Awareness 5k, which happened to be held at my high school in April. I assisted Adventist Healthcare staff members with on-site registration, distribution of race materials and support for participants, cheering them on and providing them with water.  It was great to see so many members of my community with limb differences being active together.

Through my involvement in my high school’s National Honor Society, I also supported the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless.  Wootton’s Honor Society sponsored an awareness walk and also makes breakfast for clients of the county’s homeless shelter once per month.

Academic Excellence

In 2018, I finished my Sophomore year of high school and started my Junior year. My Sophomore year classes included: Principles of Engineering, Honors Algebra 2, AP National and State Legislature, Honors English 10, Honors Chemistry, Honors Biology, and Honors Spanish 3. I finished the year with a 3.95 unweighted GPA and a weighted GPA of 4.71. Additionally, I scored an 8 out of 9 on the Principles of Engineering college equivalency exam earning an A on the course at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I now have earned 6 undergraduate engineering credits at RIT and have a 4.0 GPA.

In the spring of my Sophomore year, I was inducted into the National Honor Society and Science National Honor Society as a result of my academic and extracurricular achievements.  As a member of both honor societies, I am now a tutor to other students at my high school on a range of subjects.

Over the summer, I was selected to participate in the University of Maryland Pre-College Summer Engineering Program, a residential program for high school juniors and seniors who are considering majoring in Engineering.  Only 10% of applicants were accepted into the program.  Those who attended lived together on campus, learned about UMD’s Clark School of Engineering and worked in teams to build a prototype solution to address a real-world need.  My team was tasked with designing a robot to assist in a cave rescue (remember the soccer team stranded in the cave in Thailand?).

This year, my Junior year classes include: AP Chemistry (double period), Honors Physics, Honors Pre-Calculus, AP World History, AP Environmental Science, and AP English Language and Composition. The first semester wraps up in mid-January and I am on track to earn a 3.9 unweighted GPA and a 4.7 weighted GPA.

I am currently preparing for college and took the ACT exam this fall scoring a 34 composite and 35 superscore (out of a total possible score of 36), placing me in the top 1% of test takers in the country.  This spring, I will be taking four AP exams and 2 SAT subjects as part of my college application preparation.

Health and Fitness

I love to be active.  It’s a great stress reliever and a good way to connect with my friends who are also busy with school and college prep. In 2017, I kept myself fit by:

1. travel soccer with the World Class Premier and Laurel Lions Soccer Clubs.

2. Participating as a varsity athlete on my high school’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams, competing in sprint events such as the 400 meter and 200 meter dash, as well as qualifying for county and regional championships for both the triple jump and long jump events.
   

   

    

   3. Playing recreational basketball with a group of friends from school. Not surprisingly, I play center and currently lead the team in blocked shots.

4. One of my most exciting sports activities this year was attending the U.S. Amputee Soccer Team’s training camp in Chicago.  It was incredible meeting so many amazing amputee athletes and having an opportunity to be a part of the team.  I’m looking forward to training with them again this year.

Fundraising and Diversability Awareness

For 2018, I wanted to build upon the funds I raised in 2017 and was able to raise an additional $900 in cash and $250 in in-kind soccer equipment. I fundraised primarily via social media.  My main focus, however, was to secure a sponsorship for an amputee soccer clinic.  I was able to secure an equipment donation/sponsorship from Rush Soccer, an international sports organization with 85 clubs across the globe and over 32,000 players from youth through professional leagues.  In addition to providing equipment for the amputee soccer clinic, Rush Soccer promoted Camp No Limits on their website and their social media channels where they have more than 11,000 Facebook followers and an additional 11,000 followers on Instagram.  This sponsorship helped to raise awareness across the country and around the globe for Camp No Limits and began to create a relationship with an organization that actively seeks out opportunities to bring soccer programs to all who want to play.