February 2010 Youth of the Month
Matt Melendez
Mr. Melendez, a senior at Sterling High School is well deserving as Youth of the Month. Throughout his years at Sterling, Matt has been involved in many activities both artistically and academically. He has participated in the Marching Band, Key Club, Christian Student Union, National Honor Society, Red Cross Club, Peer Assistance and Leadership Club, Interact Club and Good Sportsmanship League. Within these organizations, Matt showed great leadership by acting in various capacities as Brass Captain, Vice President of the Honor Society, Key Club and Interact Club. Matt's contributions to his community have not just been limited to his school. He has volunteered his time with St. John's Catholic Church and Boy Scouts reaching the rank of Eagle Scout. Since June, he has completed 120 hours of community service. He has completed all of this while still maintaining a 3.889 GPA.
March 2010 Youth of the Month
Kristie Kenny and Jose Garcia
The Youth of the Month Award for March goes to two deserving students from Robert E. Lee High School and Sterling High School. As Co-Chairs of the Youth Advisory Commission, Kristie Kenny and Jose Garcia took on a difficult challenge and have managed to successfully accomplish their goal. Beginning in the Spring of 2009, these two students set their minds to making Baytown a better place for teens to live. They developed a plan to determine the needs and opinions of the teens of Baytown. While many would have stopped there, these two brought together members of the business, education and government communities to determine the types of questions that would need to be answered in order to determine and answer the needs of teens. They went out to the schools prior to the survey to educate the students on the importance of taking this survey seriously. The end result was a revealing 61 question survey that was answered by 83% of the teens of Baytown that revealed a lot of information about the thoughts and opinions of the teens of Baytown. This report will hopefully be used by not only the City Council but also by the business community and educational community to truly improve the lives of not only the teens of Baytown but also the entire population.