This Week's Student Spotlight: Corrine Quirk

Corrine Quirk

Age: 17

School: Senior at Clarkstown South High School in West Nyack.

Corrine Quirk is working toward her Gold Award in Girl Scouts by volunteering her time and promoting New City's Cropsey Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to youth in the county.

What started out as a way to fulfill required volunteer hours for the honors society has turned into a passionate mission. Her original goal was to create a garden at school for her Gold Award and to complete her volunteer hours. At an Environmental Summit last March at Clarkstown South HS, Corrine happened to come across the information table that the Cropsey Farm members had set up. Having never grown a garden she sought out the CSA originally as a stepping stone to learn about growing plants. The experience has been inspiring.

"Around June I started walking to the farm regularly with my neighbor, twice a week, and continued this throughout the summer. By the end of the summer, there were only four interns. The experience for me was invaluable, I feel like a connection with our food sources is incredibly important, and understanding how to take care of it is a valuable skill. It saddens me that so few of my peers have gotten this experience, and even being able to work outside in the fresh air and enjoy the sun and Earth, it's just a wonderful way to live. And besides the work giving you a good workout and an excellent tan," Corrine said.

A lack of young people working at the farm has prompted Corrine's switch from growing a garden at school to creating a youth group for the CSA at Cropsey Farm.

"I am in the process of recruiting more teenagers to develop an interest in local, organic food and agriculture as a whole. I would also like to make them more aware of the effect they have on the environment through what they eat, and where they spend their money on food and promote the positives of local, organic food. We will also have a major focus on fundraising to offset the cost of the set-up of the farm, and in the future to establish new CSA's."

As an intern at Cropsey Farm CSA she also became a member of the Rockland Farm Alliance. Through her summer intern experience at the farm she has learned about the dynamics of organic local food production. She's been involved in the planting, production and harvesting of the produce as well as working with the farmers and learning how to cook the bounty.

Corrine's activism in the community isn't new. For her Girl Scout Silver Award she set up an informational session about environmental awareness working with Keep Rockland Beautiful, Rockland County Solid Waste Management, Town of Clarkstown Parks and Recreation, and the Director of Facilities from Clarkstown Central School District.

"We worked together to increase community awareness of the importance of reduction of wasteful use, and encouragement of recycling within the community. We held both an informational fair, and proposed local legislation that was passed which required recycling bins in public recreational areas."

For her Girl Scout Bronze Award she cleaned up the environmental learning center at Camp Addison Boyce, which is the Rockland County Girl Scout Camp, created an informational booklet on insects, and planted edible perennials at the environmental center in order to educate younger girls on the benefits of the environment.

Corrine has immersed herself in her community but her outreach has no borders. She is enrolled in Clarkstown South's International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Which according to the IB mission "aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect."

As an IB Diploma Candidate she has taken IB English Higher Level (HL) Year II, IB History of the Americas HL Year II, IB Visual Arts HL Year II, Japanese Standard Level (SL) Year II, IB Environmental Systems SL, and IB Theory of Knowledge Year II.

In addition to the International Baccalaureate program Corrine is in the National Honors Society, Japanese Honor Society, has received History Honors Awards in grades 9th, 10th, and 11th, English Honors Awards in grades 9th, and 11th. She has received College Calculus Honors as well as taken an Independent Study course in AP Art History.

Her knowledge of the Japanese language has qualified her to teach Japanese at Little Tor Elementary and Woodglen Elementary.

"My teacher set up the program through the elementary schools to allow us to get a little over a half hour a week of teaching time to a class in an elementary school, where we focused mainly on the basics of speaking, and dabbled a little bit into culture and writing."

She performs stories for children at the New City Library which stems from her interest of the performing arts. When she had more time to give she was very active in the school's drama club, Centerstage. Now she enjoys being a part of the crew during performances.

Corrine is also the founder and co-president of a Book Club that meets monthly.

"A variety of genres are sampled that might not otherwise get attention in a classroom setting, from fiction to nonfiction, and classics to moderns, allowing students to enhance their literary interpretation in a purely discussion based environment where they come to their own conclusions as a group with some guidance from myself and co-presidents to keep them on task and lead towards constructive conclusions," said Quirk of her role in the book club.

Corrine enjoys volunteering and extracurricular activities but right now her primary focus is on school work and establishing a strong foundation for the Cropsey Farm CSA youth group. The first meeting was held December 12, 2011.

At such a young age Corrine has already made an impact on her community. Keep up the extraordinary work!