Scout Of The Year Goes To Lifelong Bolingbrook Woman

BOLINGBROOK, IL — A local high school senior was honored as Scout of the Year for her work in the community.

Kayla Austin, a student at Naperville Central High School, was nominated for the honor by the Veterans of Foreign War. John W. Davin, commander of the Illinois VFW, recognized Austin with a speech at Tuesday's village board meeting.

"When they read her credentials ... everybody was so impressed," Davin said.

Austin received the Scout recognition at a state level and also got a letter from VFW's national commander. At the local level, she was given a citation honoring "a young lady that has done so much in the community, and we never hear about it."

"Kayla here has done so much that it was a secret, I didn't even know about it till I read her resume," Devin said.

The 18-year-old honoree has lived in Bolingbrook her whole life, she said. For nine months, she participated in a program that her mom "had forced me to be in but it ended up changing my life for the better." The program allows students to study a world problem and find a solution, Austin said, so she and her friends chose to look into gun violence against youth.

She started working on an application and device pairing idea, which she looked into patenting as a 13-year-old. Now, as a senior, she said she worked with Ohio University computer engineering students to build a prototype — "I'm proud to say that the first prototype works," she said at the meeting — that's now patent-pending.

"I've been really active within the Bolingbrook community and I want to say thank you guys again for recognizing me," she said.

In the fall, Austin said she will attend Howard University to study film and television.

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