Camryn Dickson, a Rotary Club Distinguished Student of Service, shares a moment with guest speaker State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard at the Club meeting. Photo by Camille DicksonRotary Club News:
Los Alamos High School junior Camryn Dickson was honored recently by the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as a Distinguished Student of Service. Dickson is the daughter Camille and Carl Dickson.
Each school year, the Rotary Club of Los Alamos selects nine high school juniors to honor as a Distinguished Student of Service. Juniors are recognized in hopes of inspiring their interest in Rotary programs that fall during the summer following junior year. Students are nominated by their teachers and chosen on the basis of their academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, and, in particular, their service to the community.
Dickson, who has made service part of her life with involvement in several community services, activities and athletics, has been a member of the National Honor Society for three consecutive years. She is a member of Link Crew, a high school organization that helps incoming freshmen successfully acclimate to high school. She is also a member of the Varsity Girls soccer team and has helped raise money with the team for Kick for the Cure, which has donated to Susan Komen Breast Cancer Research for several years.
In the fall of 2015, Dickson and her JV soccer teammates successfully raised several hundred dollars toward the purchase of soccer cleats and vaccinations for underprivileged children in Brazil.
Along with the her soccer teammates, Dickson has performed community service by scraping and painting guardrails at the Pajarito Complex and has undertaken various painting projects on the LAHS campus. She is also a member of the LAHS Marching Band Color Guard, has participated in competitions and football games, and has performed in Topper Revue. Dickson demonstrates her leadership through soccer refereeing, as co-captain of the JV soccer team, and by teaching younger members of the Color Guard.
In an essay about one of the challenges facing today’s youth, Dickson contemplated youth’s limited view of the world and lack of appreciation for how fortunate they are.
She advocates for peers to participate in community service projects to address this challenge. “Students who volunteer to help those less fortunate will see that they have so much to be thankful for, while the people they are serving will be encouraged that someone is caring for them.”
She has seen the benefits of this through her participation in an organization, Shine a Light, which helps children in need around the world. Dickson’s global view has been expanded as well through a pen-pal program in her AP Language and Composition with a Peace Corps Trainee in Morocco with whom she shares her love of soccer – a global sport.
Dickson was joined at the luncheon by her parents and teacher Jonathan Lathrop.
