Eleventh grade is a crucial year for college-bound students nationwide. Balancing classes, extracurricular activities, and the preliminary phases of college admissions can seem nearly impossible, yet Yazmine Ali (SEED DC ‘20) has found a way to make it work.
In addition to being an honor-roll student, Yazmine is an active member of The SEED Falcon Theatre and the SEED Falcon volleyball, soccer, and track teams. Her involvement with extracurricular activities at SEED doesn’t end there—Yazmine is also a Peer Group Connection leader. In this role, she mentors and gives advice to incoming ninth-grade students who are adjusting to the rigor of SEED’s high school courses. “I love being involved with Peer Group Connection. It feels great to know that I’m helping to ease the transition for our incoming students.”
Yazmine’s leadership extends beyond SEED’s incoming ninth graders. She has already racked up more than 70 community service hours by volunteering at DC Central Kitchen, where she assists with cooking and packaging meals for the elderly, homeless, and ill. Yazmine has also traveled to Santana do Deserto, Brazil, with SEED DC’s Experiential Learning & External Opportunities program. Her most memorable moment from the trip was aiding a young boy suffering from a severe cut on his foot. She cleaned and bandaged his wound and provided him with a pair of her own socks to protect the injury and reduce the risk of infection. This experience, coupled with her internship at Children’s National Hospital, has inspired Yazmine to declare a biology pre-med major in pursuit of her dream to become a cardiovascular surgeon.
Clearly Yazmine is on the path to success, and her accomplishments have led to being a recipient of the 2020 SEED Foundation Scholarship! We admire her ambition and look forward to learning which college she will be heading to in fall 2020.