COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Carolina Torres volunteers at Queens Hospital Center (QHC), where she helps to translate, does clerical work and assits with events such as the Breast Cancer Walk and gift giving to patients on Christmas Day. She is also part of the Queens Las Americas Lions club where she organizes and promotes food, toys and blood drives. As an Ambassador for the Girl Scouts she serves her community by cleaning parks, planting trees, singing Christmas carols and teaching ESL classes for adults. “Even teaching someone how to say ‘Stop here,’ helps in some way,” said Torres. She is also a Catechist aide who visits local hospitals during Christmas and teaches religious education.
PERSONAL: Torres, 16, came from Dominican Republic when she was only two months old with her mom Ramona Torres. She has a younger sister. Torres is junior at Hillcrest High School. Even though she was raised in the United States, she is fully bilingual and maintains a close relationship with her Hispanic heritage.
JOB: Torres doesn’t have a job at this moment. She is concentrating and giving her full attention to school and her volunteer work. “Right now my priorities are school and helping my community,” said Torres.
PROUDEST MOMENT: Torres felt the most pride when she did her Sweet 15 party at Conani Orphanage in the Dominican Republic. She donated boxes of gifts for the kids and even had cake with them. “Their reactions and smiles was my biggest reward,” said Torres.
FAVORITE MEMORY: Torres’s favorite Memory is when she won the Silver Award for teaching ESL classes to the adults in her community. “It was the first project I ever did on my own, I felt really happy and accomplished,” Torres said.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Torres’s challenge is time. “The biggest challenge is finding time to do everything I want to do as a student and as a volunteer. Sometimes it’s really hard to accomplish something perfectly because even though I enjoy it, I have lots of things going on at once,” Torres said.
INSPIRATION: Besides the rewards that she gets from volunteering, Torres’s inspiration comes from her mom Ramona Torres and the great amount of support she receives from her family. “My mom is a nurse and she inspires me to help others, she even helps me out in some of the events I participate in,” Torres said.
