We are so proud to recognize our 2018-2019 school year Student Award Winners!
The Lovis Extraordinary Student Award honors 5th– 8thgrade students who make a difference in their community by promoting kindness, being selfless, demonstrating compassion and/or giving to the less fortunate.
The Lovis Hero Award recognizes high school aged students who have overcome incredible obstacles to make a difference in their community. The obstacle may be, but not limited to, poverty, mental illness, homelessness, obesity, disability, extreme bullying, abuse, violence.
Students were nominated by a teacher, counselor or caseworker and winners were selected based on impact to the community and sensitivity to those who do not have a voice. Their stories were videotaped to raise awareness about how young people can make a difference.
The 2019 Lovis Extraordinary Student Award Winners are:
Aldo Santoro, 8thgrade at Batavia Middle School, Batavia, Ohio.
More than just being a student who has great grades and is well behaved, Aldo is a student who seeks to make the community better. Aldo has been a part of the student council since fifth grade year. He has worked hard in student council to lead the council and to represent his class faithfully. He has helped set up and organize many different school events such as dances, fundraiser and service projects such as the “Socktober” sock drive. As a member of the National Junior Honor Society, he also played a leading role in the organization of a canned food drive for a local food bank.
Aldo’s service goes beyond food and clothing drives. He has been a member of the “GardenClub”at Batavia Middle School for the past four years. Each year he has helped to plant flowers, pull weeds, spread mulch, and generally help maintain and beautify the grounds at Batavia. His willingness to put his own muscle behind his life values has been evident and appreciated by all.
Even more than that, however, is his willingness and eagerness to put his own social capital on the line to help others. Since its beginning two years ago, Aldo has been a member of the”Be a Friend” Club. This is a club that was designed to be an anti-bullying force. Some of the actions and goals of this organization is to promote goodwill and communication between various groups, to encourage others and promote friendship.
Congratulations, Aldo! You are EXTRAORDINARY!
William Burrell, 8thgrade at Taft Informational Technology High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
A smart, mature, and mild-mannered young man, William has been an inspirational source for everyone around him. He has overcome adversity with his loving, caring nature and pure grit. In 5th grade William was diagnosed with hypertension that limited his participation in sports. That didn’t stop him and currently William is the captain of his school’s track team, competing in distance running track events, and winning multiple meets. In the spring of 2018, William and his family experienced a house fire. William helped ensure his siblings and grandmother made it out of the house safely. Due to the fire, William now lives a lot further away from his school. He once walked nearly 20 miles to school from home, bravely overcoming adversity with pure grit.
William is also the co-captain of the Robotic N.E.R.D.S Robotics Team. His leadership helped the team to acquire the Judges Award in the 2018 Thunderhawk First Lego League Robotics Tournament. He is always showing leadership through his inspiration to others. Often times after a rough robotics practice, or when a teammate is facing a difficult situation, William sends encouraging and inspirational text messages to the team. He encourages the team to continue to work hard and believe in the team and each individual.
Although William has a speech impairment, he speaks up and encourages others to do their best. He is currently developing a Podcast, where he plans to discuss various topics with his peers.
In addition to maintaining good grades, being an athlete, and participating in robotics. William sits on the advisory committee for the N.E.R.D.S. organization, assisting in program development. William’s leadership, positive vibes, and big-heartedness continues to inspire others. Our community is a better place because William is a part of it.
Congratulations, William! You are EXTRAORDINARY!
The 2019 Lovis Hero Award Winners are:
Alyssia Penilla, Senior at Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Alyssia is an incredibly kind, caring, and compassionate young woman. She is eager to help staff and students at any time. She is conscientious, caring, artistic, patient, self-aware, a self-advocate, and exhibits poise.She always greets staff and peers with a warm smile and friendly greeting.
Alyssia has worked tirelessly to overcome emotional challenges and worked to implement stress management strategies she has gained through groups at school. She then teaches these strategies to other students who are having a difficult time. She joyfully participated in a variety of counseling center groups alongside general education peers to learn more about stress management, self-care, and self-exploration. In this group setting, if she did not understand a word or directive, she would advocate for her needs in front of the group which takes courage and insight. She encouraged others to be open with their feelings and work through their problems, just as she was doing.
Alyssia is an advocate for others with disabilities and is always the first to encourage a classmate who is frustrated or feeling down. She has worked her way up to taking on a leadership role in the PAES Career Lab, a systematic job training program at the high school, and now helps to provide job training opportunities for younger students or students that need more assistance with job tasks. She is very motivated to increase her skills and levels of independence. She takes feedback well and always works to improve herself and overcome any barriers life has put in her way.
Congratulations, Aylssia! You are a HERO!
Andrew Leurck, Transition Program at Clark Montessori School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Drew Leurck is developmentally delayed was in his last year with Cincinnati Public Schools. He is 20 with a cognitive ability of around a 7-year-old. This realization hasn’t always been easy for the family and in fact, has been quite a journey.
When Drew was about seven, he began making rainbows every day. To date, Drew has passed out over 15,000 rainbows that say, “You’re Special.” He has passed them out to people in the community, across the country and throughout the world. He proudly carries his rainbow cards with him wherever he goes. Drew has received countless hugs, smiles, emails, and even an original poem from people he has met while passing out his rainbows. Folks often say that he gave them the rainbow just when they needed it most.
Drew has been and continues to be a bright light in this challenging world and his goal is simple, to be loving and remind all of us that, “We’re Special.”
Congratulations, Drew! You are a HERO!
Jeremiah Collins, Transition Program at Lakota East High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Jeremiah has Peroxisomal Biogenesis Disorder (PBD), which refers to disorders in the Zellweger Spectrum, which can cause a sensory system decline for hearing, vision and motor ability. Jeremiah and his older sister and younger sister all have the diagnosis. Over the years the list of diagnosis have grown to include Infantile Refsums Disease (IRD), Neonatal Adrenoleukodystrophy (NALD), and Zellweger Syndrome. PBDs are rare, genetic, metabolic, terminal conditions affecting all major systems of the body. People with PBDs commonly experience hearing loss, vision loss, hypotonia (low muscle tone), seizures, and developmental delays, and liver and kidney issues, problems with bone formation, feeding issues, and adrenal insufficiency.
In spite of these medical challenges, Jeremiah has remained happy and enthusiastic, often teasing with other students and staff. It is not unusual to hear Jeremiah and his sign language interpreter, Monica, teasing one another about the day’s events. He finds joy. He always finds joy!
As time has gone on, Jeremiah has lost a lot. He went from working with enlarged print, to using a probing cane. He has gone from low hearing, to an aid, to using sign language. Most recently, Jeremiah has found himself in a wheelchair for his mobility. Two years Jeremiah had the joy of attending high school with his little sister Lizze. PBD had been even harder on Lizze as she had always been in a wheelchair and was not able to speak, but she could coo and laugh as she often did around her big brother. Near the end of the school year, the Lakota East community suffered a devastating loss when Lizze passed away unexpectedly over a weekend. Through all of this, Jeremiah has remained positive, coming to school and participating in his vocational training, always positive, always smiling, always bringing joy to those around him.
Congratulations, Jeremiah! You are a HERO!
Madison Wilson, Senior at Mariemont High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Madison is a beautiful, selfless young lady who dealt with financial issues through high school. Even though she didn’t always have wifi at home, she found a way to get her schoolwork completed. Maddie never complained! She’s hard-working and dedicated to her 40 hour week job that she does after school and in the evenings.
Maddie makes a difference for others in her community. She befriends younger students and makes sure they have support, food and a way home. She’s a great person with a smile and wonderful attitude that she bought to school every day. Maddie is currently enrolled at Cincinnati State to be a sign language interpreter and is working at Angels, an in-home and day program for individuals with special needs.
Congratulations, Maddie! You are a HERO!
Maggie Neumann, Transition program at Sycamore High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Maggie is an incredibly responsible and driven young woman who has over come physical obstacles and is tremendously motivated. She is highly motivated to be an active and involved member of her community and is involved in young life.
Maggie’s day to day life has be exhausting, you would never know it when you talk to her. You would not hear one complaint from this young woman. Maggie navigated the University of Cincinnati Campus in a manual wheelchair in 90-degree heat in order to learn the campus and prepare for working on campus. She has learned to become completely independent in multiple medical procedures in order to be engaged in her community. She has gone from having assistance with procedures, getting from point A to point B with someone, and having an adult with her during the procedures. She is now navigating to locations, doing procedures alone, and navigating back to where she needs to be. These steps were scary and uncomfortable—Maggie did it!!
She genuinely listens to people, remembers what they have to say, and specifically asks personal details that she knows about them. In a world moving so fast, Maggie, makes the effort to really care and get to knowpeople. She also has shared her gifts with others. For example, she has helped plan community outings for her friends to engage in their community in new and exciting ways that people have never experienced before.
Maggie is extremely driven to work hard in her community and has even gone out to various work locations in order to develop her own worksites. She has made connections with people and shown them the who she is and her work ethic. It is beautiful to see her coworkers light up when she comes through the door. She has changed people. She has changed their perception and you can see the ripple effect of her energy inothers. Maggie loves being around her friends and it is amazing to see how kind she is to everyone. She has the ultimate respect for others and is always compassionate, caring, kind, and has a great sense of humor about life.
Congratulations, Maggie! You are a HERO!
Such a good thing provided by the Lovis Foundation to these wonderful students. I’m sure bright futures will come to each of them.
Thank you, Kay! They are certainly amazing young people!
All of you, at the Lovis Foundation, have chosen some very wonderful heroes for this award. I can tell just from these articles, how special they are and so deserving. Thank you for recognizing and awarding them with this honor. And, thank them and Lovis for continuing to spread the Joy, that is in the spirit of Logan!!❤️ He’d be so proud and happy.
Thank you, Diana. We agree that Logan would be so proud and happy. The Lovis Award students are impacting their communities and spreading joy just like Logan did!