What can you do as a student to help your community, in and out of school? While in high school, you learn about how to communicate with others and how to juggle responsibilities and relationships, as well as how to balance your life outside of educational purposes. A great approach to becoming a functioning citizen is to figure out changes you want to make in your community and what you want to do after graduating.

Outside of school, handling your time with a job, homework, sports and clubs is both fulfilling and possible. Just as important, teens should seek ways to work in their community.

“Find organizations that people have built the ladder for you to climb on. Don’t just start from the ground, up, but reach out and get help from other people,” said teacher Kourtney Gore.

As a mentor to the Heart and Sole program, Molysha Brown explains why it is important to help middle school girls develop with a mature role model.

”Most of the time when you’re in middle school you’re really bratty or form cliques, so I want to let the girls know how that’s not supposed to be, so when they get to high school, they don’t have that same mentality,” said Brown.

High school is the ideal time to get involved in your community and become an engaged citizen.