Awards

Jareyvi Elich Santiago, a junior at the Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences, won the 2026 Hazleton Rotary Essay Contest, announced Kim McNulty, contest chair.

“We congratulate Jareyvi on winning our local contest and wish her success as her essay proceeds to the District Contest,” said Hazleton Rotary President Joan Buffington in a news release. “Hazleton Rotary is very proud of you.”

The essay topic was “United for Good,” Rotary International’s theme. Students were asked to reflect on the meaning of “United for Good” in their own life, school, or community, providing specific examples.

Santiago will receive a $100 prize for her winning entry. Her essay has been forwarded to Rotary District 7410 for the opportunity to win the essay prizes of $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $250 for third place.

The district committee will begin judging essays at the end of the month. The three larger prizes will be awarded at the district conference. The contest was open to area juniors and seniors.

Santiago’s winning essay:

It starts out small. A conversation, a smile, a hug that opens up opportunities. I have been volunteering at the HIP center, a community center, for almost 3 years now. My time there has been nothing short of fulfilling. The joy of seeing people’s faces, smiling after having a nice, fulfilling meal, and the relief when they see that they will have food to feed their families is incredibly rewarding. But there’s something that has always been close to my heart, and that is the After School Scholars program. For 3 years now I have been a teacher’s assistant for different grades, moving wherever they need me. It has been the joy of my days working with our kids and knowing that along the way they found a second home with us.

Where we live there is an increasing Hispanic population. Many come here along with their families from struggling countries in hope of new opportunities, in search of a better future for their children. Many kids that come here are still very young and are not fluent in Spanish. It is hard, being in a classroom where everyone seems to be speaking a secret language you were never taught. The world feels foreign, uncomfortable, and doing schoolwork becomes twice the task that it was before. Two languages fighting for control anytime the teacher is speaking to you. Barely any speak your language, so you are stuck playing a daily game of guessing. Now imagine all that happening when you are just a kid.

Students who once were praised for their excellent grades, and brilliant minds, are now pitied, thought of as less than, because they don’t speak the same language. Many give up on them because of the language barrier, but we don’t. children are sponges, they love to learn, it’s just a matter of nurturing them, and that’s exactly what we do. All of us. All the teachers, the office staff, the tutors, we come together to give our students the opportunity to grow, to learn, to reach beyond what others thought was possible.

In fall of 2023, I started to teach 5th and 6th graders. One of our students had just moved here from the Dominican Republic, he was such a delight. Every week, Monday through Thursday, we would sit together and work on his homework and read on the side. As the months passed, he started to excel, reading more complicated books as we went. By the end of the school year, he was reading chapter books and even asked to take out books from the library, I couldn’t have been prouder. As someone who had also moved to the U.S. in middle school, I felt what it was like to feel behind and seeing him just push through with so much enthusiasm made my heart melt.

Knowing how much impact we had on him, and being able to witness it personally, only made me more passionate about continuing teaching and helping our kids.

Of course it’s not only the students here, but also the entire community. Since joining the HIP Center and becoming an avid member of the efforts to eradicate food insecurity in the community, my view has shifted significantly. I realized the need that our community had and became increasingly passionate in trying to help as much as I could, any time, any place.

In the start of my journey, I worked on a documentary along with 2 other of my fellow classmates. The purpose of the project was to collect stories from our community. Stories that highlighted the need, the struggle that many around us were facing in their daily lives. We collected three stories. All three painted a picture of the unheard struggle that many faced in our community. The documentary shined a light on what was going on, and from then on, it was a matter of action. With the help of my partners, we presented our documentary to an entire room of people, including our local government officials, and Health networks. It was a start, small, but it was a start.

Since then, we continued to help in various food distributions organized by the center and finding ways to optimize the process, so it’s easier for the volunteers. Along with that, we also continue to serve in our monthly community dinners. Our dinner is an event that has always been dear to me. I love being there, working with other volunteers, and local authorities. I love especially talking to everybody there. The dinner isn’t only for purposes of nourishment; it’s also for socializing. It brings the community together, and that is what I love the most. As time passes, the same faces that I see have become like family.

The center is a second home for many, including me. The After School Scholars, the community dinners, the weekly food distributions, community events, the basketball league, the summer camps. These all unite under one roof, along with over 200 volunteers, to make a home, a family, with one common goal, to better our community.

It starts out small. Nothing is achieved in span of a day, a week, a month; some may take years. The truth is it takes work, time, and passion to ignite change, but you have to start. It started small, a group of individuals who wanted to change our community for the better, and now hundreds of volunteers are helping to drive the community’s life forward. It starts out small, but with words, a smile, and movement we can open a whole new world of opportunities. I am so fortunate that I get to volunteer with such amazing people and slowly change the direction of people’s lives for the better. READ MORE