Editorโs note: This is the latest in our series about young Tucsonans who make us optimistic about the future.
Adriana Noriega was sitting in her Western civilizations class listening to a guest presenter discuss volunteering when everything changed.
Before that presentation her freshman year of high school, sheโd never given much thought to serving her community. Hearing about issues in Pima County, and specifically the countyโs Teen Court program, sparked a realization.
โIt never snapped in my mind that I have the ability to help someoneโs life and contribute to society, so I started volunteering then,โ said Adriana, 16.
Now a junior at Cholla High Magnet School, Adriana takes as many opportunities to volunteer as she can. Sheโs passionate about substance-abuse prevention, education and helping refugees in Tucson.
โWhen I see people who are giving as much as they can because they want to help, that helps me want to do the same thing, maybe not with all of my money, because I donโt have any, but with my time,โ she said. โTime is one of the most valuable things you have, and itโs also one of the most valuable things you can give, so I want to give my time and invest in peopleโs lives.โ
And time is precious to Adriana. In the midst of volunteering, she also juggles student council, the Arabic and National honor societies and all of the rigor that accompanies an International Baccalaureate program. She doesnโt just care about her own education. Sheโs also part of the Metropolitan Education Commissionโs Youth Advisory Council/Tucson Teen Congress, representing her peers in discussions on education policy and quality in Pima County.
She dreams of making policies some day.
โI wasnโt aware of the issues,โ she said. โI was so close-minded and didnโt see the bigger picture. I was just focusing on my school and I wanted to get good grades, and I never realized how much of an impact I could have.โ
What she does
Adriana started volunteering with Pima County Teen Court, a diversion program for minors, after that freshman year presentation.
The program allows minors who take responsibility for their offenses to let a jury of their peers determine their sentences. This alternative to a criminal conviction focuses on constructive sentences and service learning. Teens volunteer as members of the jury, attorneys, clerks and bailiffs.
Adriana, who volunteers as a teen attorney and vice president of the Teen Court Bar Association, had noticed many of the teens coming through the program had some involvement with substance abuse. โI saw how substance abuse affected them,โ she said. โIt practically destroys lives.โ
That realization drove her to apply to the Governorโs Youth Commission, where she is one of two teens from Pima County. There, and through organizations on campus and in the community, she advocates for greater awareness among teens about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.
Her openness to new ways of volunteering also led her to bake sales organized by Syrian refugee women last winter. Her high school Arabic teacher, Nour Jandali, invited her to help translate.
โWhen I was getting ready to leave (the bake sale), she was in the room where all of the volunteers met, taking the stage to explain how we can do new events better,โ Jandali said .
Again, Adriana found her eyes opened.
โWhen I was speaking with the Syrian refugees, it was very surreal,โ Adriana said. โIโve heard about it before, all the problems theyโre going through ... and being able to speak to someone who has been going through this their whole life really made me want to give back more.โ
She was already interested in the Middle East because of an older sister who took Arabic in high school. Biblical references in church to Middle Eastern locales also piqued her interest.
Before the bake sales, Adriana had applied for the YALLAH Commit to Action program organized by the Qatar Foundation International, an organization that awarded the Tucson Unified School District grant money to expand Arabic programs to other schools.
As part of the Commit to Action program, she developed a project to support the education of Syrian refugee children. In Tucson, she collected school supplies and more than $300 to purchase education necessities. She donated all of it to the local resettlement agency Refugee Focus.
Because of that project, she was selected to attend the National Youth Leadership Councilโs Dare to Dream service-learning conference in California in March and another leadership conference in Qatar .
Why it matters
For Adriana, itโs about taking what she has and sharing it with others.
โBeing so privileged, I kind of think of it as โWhy not?โโ she said. โAfter I started volunteering and looking at the bigger picture, I saw that I can have an impact on someoneโs life. I can make a change, and it starts with one person.โ
Jandali said Adriana also encourages her peers to volunteer.
โShe is one of those kids who will take a risk and be in front and take that job and complete it until it is done well,โ Jandali said.
encouraging peers
โJust do it,โ she said. โThere is going to be something eventually that youโre going to be passionate about. ... For me, I didnโt even know I was passionate about substance-abuse prevention until I realized there were people going through bad things. When you see problems like that and are genuinely interested in wanting to help, you should just take the opportunity.
โThere is no age to start giving back to the community. You can start doing that at 6 years old if you want. There are always ways to give back to the community.โ
