Young Women of Promise 2007

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New Mexico State University freshman Jamie Crosson, 18, left Alamogordo High School with several academic honors and awards. She was a member of the National Honor Society, and the AHS Golden Scholar Program, and was a Congressional Student Leadership nominee, among many other honors. She was also active in numerous extracurricular activities and an athlete in multiple sports, including volleyball, basketball, softball, and golf. She is president of her church youth group and has volunteered at the Otero County Fair, prepared food baskets for the needy, volunteered in a nursing home, and mentored young children as a “Big Sister.” She looks forward to a career as a registered nurse. Jamie was nominated by her high school guidance counselor, who called Jamie “one of the finest young people I have ever worked with.”

Margaret Edgar, 18, attends Silver City High School and is a senior who loves to run cross county, create art, sing, and play the flute and piano. She went on a mission to Guatemala to help families rebuild their homes after a mud slide, and saw first-hand how many people needed homes, recognizing this is also a problem in America and elsewhere around the world. Her dream is to become an architect, designing orphanages and homeless shelters. She is the president of First Priority Club, which makes Thanksgiving and Christmas boxes for those in need. Through the club, she also participated in holiday caroling to nursing homes and organized the monthly sponsorship of a Central American child. She was nominated by her high school counselor, who says Margaret has overcome adversity in that she had to regain use of one arm and wrist through therapy after an unfortunate accident that broke her arm, and then went through the process all over again after it broke a second time.

Carley Frick, 17, a Sandia High School senior, is active in student government. As Key Club president, she arranged volunteer activities at The Storehouse, Roadrunner Food Bank, Balloon Fiesta, and area schools. She has been in marching band, color guard, winter guard, jazz band, and concert band. She earned the Girl Scout’s Gold Award after three years, during which she tutored and designed “Carley’s Reading Corner,” a reading/activity program for homeless children in Albuquerque elementary schools. In that project, she created books on tapes from books she had collected, and taught the students how to use the tape recorder and follow along with books when she was not there to help them. She also created activities for each grade level, and helped third, fourth, and fifth grade students with their homework. That project inspired her to pursue a degree in education, after which she hopes to join the Peace Corps. She was nominated by a neighbor friend, who said she has watched Carley “grow into an active, community-minded, caring young lady.”

Hope Harris, 17, is a senior at Manzano High School, part of the Student Senate, and has been a student officer throughout her high school career. She has been a yearbook editor, and a member of two choirs and the Manzano Theater Department. She is also an actor with The O Agency and is in a pre-professional dance company, where she performs in at least three productions a year. She excels academically, and participated in a highly-competitive summer early college program at Spelman College in Atlanta. She is a leader in the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, and has competed in several NSBE science and math competitions, winning first place regionally and second place nationally. She was a member of the first-place winning Albuquerque Try-Math team. She has led numerous community service projects, including a clothing and school supply drive for children in Mexico, a prom for senior citizens, toy and food drives, highway clean-up, and fundraising for Katrina victims. After graduating, she would like to major in fine arts.

Allison Stapleton, 18, a senior at Manzano High School, works with children as a day camp counselor at the Albuquerque Mountainside YMCA and previously worked with disabled children through the City of Albuquerque. She has also been coach for the Manzano High School Special Olympic Team. She says, “I believe people of all ages still don’t understand people with disabilities. Though they are trying to understand, there are still a few who turn their heads.” She would like to affect some degree of social change by setting up a program explaining what wonderful people disabled people are, and “how they accept people for who they are without judgment.” Allison was recognized as U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s Character Counts teen for January 2007 for her community service. She has also attended the DECA State Leadership Career Conference and its national counterpart, and received a citizenship award from the YMCA.

Mallory Markham, 18, has a burning desire to make a difference in this world, and would like to major in medicine. She has played classical violin since she was 4 years old, and has played in the Albuquerque Youth Orchestra. She feels one of the biggest problems young people face today is thinking they are too small to make a difference. She organized a community service project every month for students at her school, where she is student body president and a member of the National Honors Society. She has attended Girls State and a Rotary leadership camp, has played varsity golf, and has done a number of community service projects, including organizing a spring carnival for Albuquerque foster children. She has also worked with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Noonday Ministries, Child Life at Presbyterian Hospital, and Life Options Academy, and has made two humanitarian trips to Ecuador, where she worked with children and helped renovate buildings.

Elizabeth McConaghy is an 18-year-old freshman at the University of New Mexico who plans to major in anthropology. She has volunteered as a host at the Museum of Natural History and Science, worked at the Albuquerque Aquarium, and interned at the Albuquerque Little Theater doing set design. She also has been a volunteer at UNM’s Maxwell Anthropology Museum and with Habitat for Humanity. She helped raise funds for the Hearing Impaired Kids Endowment, collected school supplies, conducted blood drives, and participated in many service projects through the Girl Scouts. She has been involved in choir, National Honor Society, Job’s Daughters, swing dance, drama club, and student council. With the help and support of the community and her family, she was able to record 23 books for children at the UNM Children’s Hospital, many of whom are in isolation, which earned her the Girl Scout Gold Award.

At 14, Albuquerque’s Stephanie Sugars has already amassed an impressive resume. The La Cueva High School freshman has instructed sixth graders on coping with bullies and starting middle school, helped provide books to a library in Zambia, has done community service as a Girl Scout and has worked for the Roadrunner Food Bank and Ronald McDonald House. She is a founding member of the N.M. Chapter of People to People International, a group that promotes peace through understanding, and member of a dance team. She is active in her church youth group, and earned the Girl Scout Silver Award for organizing a multi-troop event that drew more than 150 participants. Her goal is to maintain straight A’s in high school and become school valedictorian.

La Cueva High School junior Susan Whitehouse, 17, has held numerous leadership roles in school, including president of Key Club. She has been class secretary, a member of the National Honors Society, and a thespian. She has also taught vacation Bible school several years in a row. She has maintained a high grade point average in high school while completing hundreds of hours of community service, working for New Mexico Animal Friends, KNME, the Tourettes Syndrome Association, and others. She has also served as a tutor. As a freshman, she completed an internship at U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson’s office, writing response letters, answering phone calls, and learning all aspects of the office. She hopes to become a medical doctor, and is enrolled in a pre-medical class at the Career Enrichment Center.

A first-generation American, Sining Zhou, is one of the top students at La Cueva High School, where she is in the running for valedictorian. She is president of Key Club and has participated in youth band and District VII and NMSU Southwest Honor Bands, and is also a participant in tutoring, National Honors Society, Spanish National Honors Society, Model United Nations, and mentorship programs. She has won writing and scholarship awards and excels in science, regularly taking regional and state awards in the Science Olympiad. She is an avid volunteer in dozens of activities, including the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure, fundraising for KNME, Special Olympics, Roadrunner Foodbank food drive, numerous fund-raising walks, and several events that benefit children. She often gives her time at area hospitals, and says she would like to become a medical doctor to help civilians in poverty-stricken areas.