News

Community Service Superstar: Monica Moszczyc ’11 By Emily Yeterian, Courtesy of Kent News

Monica Moszczyc ’11 is extremely dedicated to service. She has been on many community service trips to places like New Orleans, Virginia, Mexico, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. Every trip has been “a unique and extremely educational experience and an enormous amount of fun!” says Moszczyc.  She is an active member in the community service activities on campus and always does every single activity she can.

As one of the presidents of REACH (Remember Every Action Can Help), Kent’s largest community service club, Moszczyc not only supervises the majority of REACH’s activities but also participates in whatever she can. Whether it’s making cookies for a bake sale, volunteering at the local soup kitchen, or fundraising for a local cause, Moszczyc is always doing something for the group. “Whenever Monica does anything, relating to community service or otherwise, she always makes sure to do it to the absolute best of her abilities. She is always the most productive person on the job,” says Devin Brodie ’11. Additionally, Moszczyc is a part of the Habitat for Humanity club, the Heifer International Club, and FABB (For A Better Beginning).

Monica’s dedication to service is confirmed by the multitude of awards she has received for her efforts. Her sophomore year, Moszczyc received the Dominic Rich Fund for the Christian Mission for her Ecuador trip. The grant enabled her to go on the service trip to Ecuador where she helped build a greenhouse in the Andes Mountains and paint school rooms on the Galapagos Islands. In Moszczyc’s junior year, she received The Nicolas Bache Memorial Prize for Community Service on Pre-Prize day for her dedication and considerable amount of service. Mrs. Sokolnicki notes “from the day that Monica arrived at Kent, she has been intensely involved in community service activities. She distinguished herself beginning in her third form year, and has continued to be an integral part of the community service program at Kent.”

However, Moszczyc’s involvement in community service goes beyond the valley land of Kent. For the past six years, Moszczyc has been participating actively in the Police Athletic League. Every summer, Moszczyc coaches cheerleading to children in her town from ages five to eleven to prepare them for the game season. A former cheerleader, Moszczyc enjoys the fact that she can still be involved in the sport and help the community at the same time.

Moszczyc  also completed a very commendable Girl Scout Gold Award project, wherein she organized student in our art classes to paint beautiful pictures to send to little children in Mexico. When Moszczyc went to Mexico after her freshman year, she went to an orphanage and saw that the children at the orphanage did not have any pictures of themselves. Moszczyc needed sixty hours of community service to receive her gold award (which is the equivalent of an Eagle Scout Award), so she came up with the idea of sending these orphans paintings of themselves. Moszczyc asked Ms. Lynch if the art survey class could paint fifty portraits of the kids at the orphanage. For the other half of the kids at the orphanage Moszczyc designed and created two murals out of canvas to be put on the walls at the orphanage. With this project, Moszczyc  was able to gain the hours needed to receive her gold award. Receiving a gold award is not an easy task as there are several check points: getting the pre-requisites and project proposal approved, writing a review of your project, receiving the final approval from the board, and finally, planning a ceremony to receive the award. The whole project began her sophomore year and  she has finally been granted the award.

Other than service, Moszczyc participates in a wide variety of other activities as well.  She has been a committed soccer and basketball player for the past four years and lacrosse for three. Whether she is on the field or the court, she puts everything she has into her athletics. She has been captain of the junior varsity basketball and junior varsity lacrosse teams and has always gone above and beyond the call of her responsibilities as captain.

Needless to say, Moszczyc has been involved in concentrations all across the board. Her cheerful attitude and helpful hand make her the valuable Kent community member that she is.