Rebecca Yatovitz, Resisterstown Club's Teenager of the Year

by Mike Grimes

Rebecca Yatovitz has been selected as the 2011 Teenager of the Year by the Kiwanis Club of Reisterstown, MD.

Rebecca, an 11th grader at Franklin High School, was selected from a field of nominees from the area's high schools. Nominees were evaluated on their academic achievements, volunteer service, citizenship and leadership performance.

The award will be presented to Miss Yatovitz by Jerry Debar, President of the Kiwanis Club at our club meeting on May 3, 2011. In making the presentation, Mr. Debar will recognize Rebecca Yatovitz as Teenager of the Year for her achievements, responsibility and leadership role in his school and the community. She exemplifies today's young people striving for excellence in their own lives, as well as contributing to the betterment of their communities.

Rebecca is the daughter of Barry and Lisa Yatovitz of Owings Mills. She has one brother; Matthew Yatovitz, 13. Rebecca feels her Mother is the most influential person in her life. Her mother is always able to keep a level head in the face of adversity. Her mother works as a Speech Pathologist with special education children and Rebecca finds this quite admirable.

Her religion, Judaism, has been the most influence on her life. It has allowed her to participate in many community events, such as youth groups, both local and national. It has given her to meet new people and has been able to participate in social activities through these groups.

She is a member of the National Honor Society, the Penny Wednesday Coordinator in 2010-2011, the National Art Honors Society as President from 2010-2011, the Key Club, the Steering Committee, Varsity Tennis and was Homeroom Representative from 2008-2011. She belongs to two youth groups. The North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) and Har Sinai Temple Youth (Hasty) as Programming Vice President in 2010-2011. Rebecca has been nominated for the Dr. Ben Carson Scholarship Award and the National Merit Scholarship. She has participated in the Hopewell Cancer Support Group Walk (2009-2010), has helped to build a playground for inner city children in 2010, collected school supplies for children in Haiti (2010), participated in the Kayaam Farm (2010), and social action activities with NFTY-Invisible Children and Stevens Nature Center (2010-2011).

Rebecca feels that volunteering has given her a sense of accomplishment. Volunteering has opened her eyes to the issues outside of her community.

After high school, Rebecca would like to pursue an education that combines math and science with art, possibly in marketing, architecture or a form of engineering. Her intention is to attend either Elan University, University of Virginia or VA Tech.

As the winner on the club level, Rebecca's nomination will be submitted to the division and district competition with other teenagers through Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and DC.

The Kiwanis organization's major emphasis is "serving the world's children," and a major focus is youth services. Kiwanis clubs throughout the world sponsor Circle K clubs in colleges, Key Clubs in local high schools, Builders Clubs in middle school and K Kids in elementary schools, as well as mentoring teens and other projects benefiting children.

The Kiwanis Club of Reisterstown currently sponsors three Key Clubs, Franklin, Owings Mills, and Hereford High Schools.

The Club also contributes to the Kiwanis International goal to raise $75 million to eradicate iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) throughout the world. IDD is the result of a lack of iodine in the diet and causes mental retardation, goiter and other impairments. In partnership with UNICEF, Kiwanis International is helping to build salt plants, educating families on proper diet and working with third world governments to regulate salt manufacturing to include iodine.