“I am part of the Students of the Year program for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). This is a leadership program where high school students compete to see who can raise the most money for LLS. This program runs all over the United States, but it is divided into different chapters with people from different states. We compete with local high schools and the Michigan chapter has about fifteen different teams. I am a co-candidate with my friend from Marian, Gabriel Grace, and we have been raising money together for the competition. I got involved when my mom’s cousin nominated me to be a student of the year for the program. I then asked Gabrielle to be a co-candidate with me. She was the perfect person to ask because her brother Charlie is a leukemia survivor and because she is very hardworking. We named our campaign Team Charlie’s Angels in honor of her brother. We have been doing this since January and the competition ends in March. We have been raising money by having bake sales and through social media. We did a bake sale at the Marian vs Mercy basketball game, which was pretty successful. We don’t know how much money the other teams have raised because every team is supposed to keep it a secret. On March 10, all the teams get together at a silent auction and they reveal how money much was raised altogether and how much each individual team raised. The winning team gets a scholarship and the title Student of the Year. All the money raised goes to patients and research for leukemia and lymphoma. I’m really glad I got involved because it’s a really cool experience to learn the ins and outs of campaign management. I was shocked at the amount of personal connections my family had to leukemia, lymphoma, and other cancers. My favorite part of being involved in the students of the year program is knowing that I am making a difference by supporting an organization working towards cures and that helps families affected by these diseases.