2019 Standout Students

It is with great pleasure that we introduce our 2019 Standout Students! These impressive teens prove that your age does not preclude you from being a leader, scientist, activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist or advocate.

While each of these students—who hail from various schools in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties—has excellent grades, it is their desire and drive to better their communities that sets them apart.

Our Standout Students have volunteered a staggering number of hours in the community, making a difference in local schools, nonprofit groups and elsewhere. I

One student has raised $8,000 for cancer research; another organized the Climate Strike march in Annapolis last spring; and a brother and sister have successfully donated more than 7,000 pieces of sports equipment to kids in the community.

A short profile of each student follows, and you can read more and watch short video interviews of each student at ChesapeakeFamily.com/standoutstudents.

We enjoyed meeting each of these students; we were truly impressed with what they’ve accomplished, and we are looking forward to seeing what they accomplish in the future.

Amelia Farrell 12th Grade, Annapolis High

Amelia Farrell is no stranger to environmental advocacy. As a volunteer and student leader with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, she has seen how climate change has affected the Bay, and how legislation can make positive change.

So it’s no surprise that Amelia decided to organize a Youth Climate Strike event in Annapolis in the March of 2019. According to her op-ed in the Capital Gazette just before the event, “I should be worrying about homework, scholarships, and college applications. But instead, I’m worrying about climate change: The impending global threat weighing on the youth of the world.”

While organizing the march, which included a demonstration on the grounds of the State House and a march to City Dock, Amelia tackled getting permits from the City of Annapolis and the Capital Police, recruited a slate of speakers, and ran a very successful rally. Her goal was to encourage legislators to support the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which requires Maryland to source half the state’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The Maryland General Assembly gave final approval to the Clean Energy Jobs Act several weeks later. “I want to make it clear to the legislators, adults, youth, and anyone living in Maryland,” Amelia wrote in her op-ed, “that their actions can make a difference in the world.”

Hugh Coyle 8th Grade, St. Anne’s School of Annapolis

Hugh Coyle has been raising funds to support pediatric cancer research since he was in the fifth grade. Since that spring of 2016, Hugh has shaved his head in a St. Baldrick’s “Brave the Shave” event research each spring, raising a total of $8,000 for Osteosarcoma—a bone cancer that affects children and young adults, and one which treatment options have not seen any advancement in 30 years.

Hugh and his family have been involved in this annual event since his 17-year old cousin, Olivia, was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in 2016. The money raised during “Brave the Shave” goes directly to a 1.5 million dollar research grant to provide new treatments using immunotherapy.

This past spring, friends of the Coyle family, the Wilsons, started their own fight against Osteosarcoma when their fifthgrade son, Ben, was diagnosed. Hugh added Ben to his list of honorees to raise money for. After the May 5 event, he and his family had raised nearly $3,800 for Wilson’s Warriors.

Olivia, now 19, is now doing well, and is a freshman at U.Va. In September Ben Wilson finished a “rigorous treatment consisting of 68 nights in the hospital, 38 days of chemo, 9 blood transfusions, a limb amputation, along with hundreds of pokes and pills,” according to his mother on Facebook. Hugh says, “This cancer could happen to anyone, and if I can help them it’s the right thing to do.”

Julianna Bibbo 11th Grade, Mount de Sales Academy

Julianna Bibbo has compassionately served nearly 400 hours with Happy Helpers for the Homeless. The work of Happy Helpers is challenging and encompassing, yet it’s Julianna’s favorite outreach to give of her time and talents.

“When Julianna arrives, we know that it is going to be an extra wonderful day,” says Bobbi Coffman, executive director of Happy Helpers. “We always put her in charge of a volunteer team and task because of how capable she is.”

From meeting urgent needs during a volunteer event to bringing a positive attitude and hope to those she serves, Julianna has made volunteering for the homeless a way of life. She has worked on a variety of projects impacting her community, including the distribution of 2,000 Christmas presents in the streets of Baltimore, and participating in Freedom Harvest food drives commemorating September 11.

Julianna is the only young person involved in the weekly sorting of Walmart donations to Happy Helpers, and she spent Mondays during her last two summer vacations to shop for supplies and sort donations. One of the most impactful events for Julianna has been traveling to rural Caroline County to bring massive aid to families living without electricity. “Help people in any way you can,” she says. “Kindness goes such a long way. Kindness can make someone’s day or inspire them to help others. The world needs more kindness.”

Parker Drapeau 8th Grade, Crofton Middle School

In June 2018, 12-year-old Parker Drapeau (then called Claire) was surprised to find that there was no local Pride parade in Anne Arundel County. Parker wanted to let all LGBTQ+ kids know that they are loved and accepted, even if they might not always feel that way at home or school. His idea was to buy pride stickers and goodies to hand out to people to lend support to the LGBTQ+ community.

Parker and his mom decided on downtown Annapolis as a good spot to do this, and they posted on social media to see if anyone wanted to join them. The mayor caught wind of Parker’s idea, and asked if he could join the group. Parker became the driving force behind the first ever “Pride Walk” in Annapolis that summer, and soon he and Mayor Gavin Buckley led a crowd of more than 50 LGBTQ+ people and allies up Main Street, carrying a pride flag and handing out pride stickers to passersby. They literally stopped traffic (with the city’s blessing).

“People saw us walking up the street and asked ‘What’s this?’ ” Parker’s mom, Chrissy Rey, said, “and we told them it was a Pride Walk, and they just started walking with us!”

Parker was then invited to be a Grand Marshal at the first Annapolis Pride Parade in June 2019, having inspired the local Annapolis Pride group to organize a major event in Annapolis.

Rida Alvi 12th Grade, Annapolis High School

Since the moment Rida Alvi entered Annapolis High School she has been involved with student government. “She is a tireless advocate for not only her fellow students, but every student in the county,” says her advisor Kathleen Richburg. Her interest in government and how it is run led her at 15 to start working for Speaker of the Maryland House, Mike Busch. In the spring of 2018, Rida won the election for Student Member of the Board of Education, a coveted position for all SGA students in Anne Arundel County.

Rida is also active in the Future Business Leaders of America and has competed in both district and state competitions. Through these competitions, she’s learned a great deal, including public speaking, speech writing, and leadership skills. Even with her duties on the Board of Education and other activities, Rida still finds time to excel in the rigorous IB program, and, according to Richburg, “puts the time and energy into everything she takes on to give it her best.”

Working with the board has been a great lesson in government as well, says Rida. “I’ve learned to consider people who have different perspectives and compromise,” she says. She’s also learned how important it is to learn to “work with people that think differently than you do but also push the needle forward on the issues you really care about.”

William Nolan 12th Grade, Key School

William Nolan is an exceptional young scientist passionate about making a difference and improving the world through science. He recently presented his original research on “radiolytic denaturation of bovine milk proteins with fast neutron bombardment” at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Integrated STEM Education Conference at Princeton University. His research focused on an innovative approach to eradicating allergenic proteins from cows’ milk without effecting its overall composition. Essentially, he used neutron radiation to “turn off” the proteins in cows’ milk that people are allergic to.

Speaking at the IEEE conference at Princeton was exciting for William, as it’s not often you’ll find a high school student presenting his own research. “The people there were incredibly nice,” he says, and were “eager to see what I had as a high schooler presenting at this conference. It was a lot of fun.”

In addition to his research with milk proteins, William has been an intern at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and has been accepted in to several highly selective educational programs including John’s Hopkins ASPIRE program, the American Legion Boys State, and the Summer Seminar at the USNA. He is also an Eagle Scout, and enjoys tutoring children at the Center of Help in Annapolis.

Elizabeth and Lachlan Armstrong 11th and 9th Grade, Key School

Several years ago, Elizabeth and Lachlan Armstrong learned that Mariano Rivera, the famous New York Yankees player from Panama, learned to play baseball using a cardboard mitt. Elizabeth says that spurred her and her brother to start gathering the sports equipment that they no longer used that was gathering dust in their basement and garage and put it to good use.

This turned into a community-wide event called Pass, Pick and Play—a program to collect gently used athletic equipment and distribute it to under-served youth in Anne Arundel County. Held each spring at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center in Annapolis, Elizabeth and Lachlan begin taking donations weeks ahead of time by placing donation bins at the rec center and at other partner locations like the Key School and local soccer clubs. The program’s growth over the past three years has been impressive.

“Together we’ve collected about 2,000 pieces of sports equipment and helped about 400 families,” says Lachlan. “My favorite part of it is the smiles from the kids and helping them out. And I get to make them smile, so that’s a good thing.”

Elizabeth says she would love for Pass, Pick and Play to grow outside of Maryland, and that more kids can benefit from these events, “It means something to the kids. They get such joy out of it.”

Gabrielle Marquez 11th Grade, St, Mary’s High School

Gabrielle’s love and concern for the outdoors has motivated her to protect and preserve our environment within her own community. Gaby started volunteering with Chesapeake Bay Trust in 2017. Shortly thereafter she joined the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and became a student leader, attending the student leader confluence and learning skills to advance advocacy, action and awareness.

In August of 2018, Gaby’s realized that her community beach had a problem with phragmites—an invasive species that crowds out native species, as well as robs nearby fish, plants, and wildlife of nutrients and space. Gaby came up with an idea that would remove the phragmites without resorting to hazardous chemicals that would kill the other plants or poison the surrounding water or environment—goats!

Gaby found a local woman who leases her goats out for this exact purpose. Before long, two dozen goats were munching on phragmites for three full days. When the phragmites were gone Gaby organized people in the community to come in and plant native grasses. She paid for both the goats’ rental and the new plants with a $5,000 community mini-grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust that she applied for, and a matching donation by the H.O.A in her community.