Growing Green receives Gold

Alexa Viola, a Class of 2017 graduate of Sacred Heart Academy and Manhasset resident, culminated her ten years in Girl Scouts with the Gold Award, the highest achievement. Fostering environmental awareness and habits of sustainability were the focus of her 100 hour project, Growing Green. During her sophomore and junior years at SHA, in the midst of studying for SATs, ACTs and Driver’s Ed, Alexa volunteered her time conducting workshops at Adventures in Learning (an after-school educational and enrichment program dedicated to improving the lives of Long Island children in need of after-school care and instruction) and giving presentations to girl scouts in her home-town of Manhasset.

Growing Green strove to positively impact the young students. Alexa lead upcycling workshops, trivia games, and gave power point presentations teaching how to repurpose things they own rather than throw them in the trash, and how to reduce their own use of electricity and water, in their homes and at school. Her power point presentation was selected and shown during Earth Week in the Manhasset Secondary School. Alexa believed that if young people are educated and inspired to live more sustainably, they will grow up green, live more environmentally conscious lives, and make better choices now and later on when they become adults.

While at SHA, Alexa challenged herself. She took AP courses in US History, English Language and Composition, English Literature, Calculus, Biology and Psychology, and competed on the Varsity Math Team, Speech & Debate, the Euro and Fed Challenges, Red & Gold, and was a captain of the Cross Country Team. She was inducted into the National Honor Society and the Math, Science and Spanish Honor Societies. During the summers she competed in sailing regattas and assisted as a junior sailing instructor at the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club. As a SHA graduate, Alexa is excited to be part of the Georgetown University Class of 2021.