Bel Air Teen Picked for Prestigious Young Women’s Program

(Bel Air, MD) – Katelyn O’Connor, 17, of Bel Air, is the Harford County representative for the Distinguished Young Women of Maryland Scholarship Program. The program is part of a national scholarship effort that promotes and rewards scholarship, leadership and talent in young women.

O’Connor was selected among other statewide candidates for her scholastic achievement, leadership and talent. She will compete Saturday July 27, 2019 at Frederick Community College’s JBK theater in an event kicking off at 4 p.m., in five areas: academic scores; interview; talent, for which she will dance; physical fitness and self-expression, which is an evaluation of public speaking skills. The program will be award more than $20,000.00 in cash scholarships, according to their website. Plus, there’s opportunity for additional scholarships to several colleges throughout the country.

Last year, college scholarships were awarded at the state level and $1 billion in college-granted scholarships were available nationally. This year, one representative will advance to the national program in Mobile, Alabama where more than $100,000 in cash tuition scholarships will be awarded.

The future attorney said she hopes to attend a four-year university where she plans to earn a degree in political science and special education before completing law school. She’s set a goal of “becoming a lawyer in my own firm to advocate for those who need my help, like I do with Sports for Life and Best Buddies as Best Buddies Secretary.”

O’Connor is also a member of the We Cancerve Movement’s all-youth board of advisors, where she has served as a junior camp counselor for We Cancerve’s Camp Happy, a free summer enrichment program offered to area homeless children. O’Connor helped develop a We Cancerve’s fundraiser, a summer dance party that raised enough money to fund field trips for youth at three homeless shelters for two years. She was one of three youth who helped design and introduce Camp Happy to Eastside Family Emergency Shelter in 2018, where she created and facilitated workshops on self-esteem and responsibility using her experience as a trained dancer and vocalist as the foundation for her sessions. O’Connor was also instrumental in establishing We Cancerve’s pediatric libraries at Harford County’s Department of Social Services foster care visitation center and at St. Agnes Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Room as a member of the nonprofit’s library committee.

A longtime dancer with Rage Box Contemporary Dance Center in Forest Hill, O’Connor is active in her high school’s Student Government Association, dance program, ASL Sign Language Club and Spanish Club. She is also a member of the Harford Dance Theater and Sports for Life Helper for students with disabilities.

“I enjoy community service because it makes me feel amazing. I love being able to have the opportunity to help others around me because, when I make others happy, it makes me happy as well. The feeling that I impacted someone's life positively, even in the slightest way, makes me feel amazing because that means that someone else's day is even the tiniest bit better, which is what community service is all about. Giving back to the community can help so many individuals to have easier and better days, which is why I love giving back through community service,” said O’Connor, who is completing her junior year at C. Milton Wright High School.

Since its founding in 2012, We Cancerve is a nonprofit public charity that has brought happiness to more than 14,000 homeless, sick and foster children in Maryland, Delaware, Ohio, Kenya and Namibia and has donated more than $15,000 in cash grants and $50,000 in products to nine hospitals including Sinai Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; 10 homeless shelters and transitional programs including Eastside Family Emergency Shelter and Anna's House; local feeding ministries The Sharing Table in Edgewood and St. John's Episcopal Church's Cupboard in Havre de Grace; three foster care group homes, and three orphanages including one in Kenya, East Africa and another in Namibia, Southern Africa. Since 2015, We Cancerve has been offering a free summer enrichment day camp called Camp Happy to homeless children that’s expanding to foster children in summer 2019. In 2016, the all-youth board of advisors opened La Magnifique Boutique, a free full service boutique that offers shoes, clothes and jewelry appropriate for work and worship for teen girls living in a foster care group. Also, in 2016, the group created the We Cancerve Pediatric Patient Assistance Fund that helps families of sick children at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. In 2019, We Cancerve opened two named pediatric libraries serving hospitalized and foster children in Baltimore and Bel Air, respectively.