Hi there :) My name is Gabriela Pereda and in the blink of an eye, I am now a senior at SHS.
Although my time left here is short, I am committed to doing everything I can to leave a lasting impact on this incredible district and the incredible people within it.
Last year, I found myself spontaneously deciding to take journalism and I can confidently say it is one of the best decisions I’ve made in the last four years. Now, here I am again, and this year I will be partaking on the LEAF as both a copy editor and staff writer. Through this program, I’ve found myself welcomed into an incredibly supportive and loving community that is room 115. In addition, journalism has left me with an incredibly vast set of skills that I will be able to incorporate within the rest of my life. Most importantly, and something I am forever grateful for, journalism has taught me to trust my voice, trust my opinions, and to express them. So often as a society, we choose to stay silent about issues that are important to us in fear of others judging us or not agreeing with us. Yet, it is crucially important, as I’ve now learned, that we take a step of faith within ourselves, and never let your voice and your opinions hide within your mind.
Through my writing, I hope to bring light to specific topics that I believe we all as a society should take a moment to read into. And at the end of the day, my ultimate goal is that through whatever I write, my readers will always leave educated, but most importantly impacted, wanting to make a change for the better whether it be for themselves or for society as a whole.
Outside of school, I find myself involved in a melange of extracurricular activities. Social work and dedicating myself to my community has always been an incredibly important passion of mine. This has led me to my current positions as Co-Chairman of Sycamore’s Fashion for the Cure Committee benefitting the Dragonfly Foundation and President of Sycamore’s Unified for Uganda chapter. Most recently, I took a position as Content Manager of a newly founded non-profit named Proyecto Manzana which is aimed at serving women and children in my native country of Venezuela. On the athletic end, I run cross country, winter track, and spring track for Sycamore.
As a firm believer in the importance of accepting and loving all people, I hope to convey this attribute throughout my writing and the rest of my life endeavors. I genuinely aspire to make a difference in this world and I hope to take a step toward that goal through my work here at the LEAF.
Love,
Gaby Pereda
#goaves
