Whiz Kid: Bloomfield Township Teen Rewarded for Leadership in Volunteer Work

Each week, Bloomfield Patch features students doing amazing things in schools and their communities. This week's Whiz Kid organizes an annual garage sale at Lahser High School to support programs geared for underpriveleged families.

Armani Hawes

Age: 18

School: (Class of 2011)

Accomplishment: This 18-year-old with a penchant for community service was recently named one of 230 students nationwide to participate in Bank of America’s Student Leaders Program.

She earned a paid eight-week summer internship with Focus:HOPE and attended the Bank of America’s Student Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, this month. While there she participated in leadership training, workshops with other youth volunteers, briefings on Capitol Hill and packed care packages for military families.

Hawes said she believes the hands-on experience she's getting as an intern will help her prepare for a career in the non-profit sector, and help keep her involved in community projects next year while attending the University of Michigan.

Key to awesomeness: Hawes has raised more than $11,000 for the Royal Oak-based Judson Center, which offers family counseling, foster care, autism awareness and other services to underpriveleged families. Hawes said she first got involved with the Judson Center in 2008 and organized a community garage sale to raise money for children in need. The endeavor raised $1,800 in its first year and $3,000 the following year. The fourth annual event will take place in August.

She collects all the materials and arranges storage and transportation with local companies that sponsor the event.

“A leader is someone that doesn’t sit around and watch things being done,” she said. “It’s a person who notices something that’s wrong and does something, and gets other people to care about it, too, so that together they can make a change.”

Do you know our next Whiz Kid?

Bloomfield Patch welcomes suggestions for students, youth groups and even sports teams who wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as Whiz Kid. Submit your nomination in our comment box below or email the information to editor Art.Aisner@patch.com. Please include all these details:

• Nominator's name
• Whiz Kid's name and age
• Whiz Kid's school
• Whiz Kid's accomplishment
• What makes the nominee successful