Sister Cities Presents Annual Awards
Volunteer awards and youth scholarships were presented at Fort Worth Sister Cities International’s annual holiday party recently. Premier awards were presented to the Volunteer of the Year, Tara Forrest, and Youth Volunteer of the Year, Bogdana Oliynyk.
Ms. Forrest is a teacher at Fort Worth Country Day and has been involved with Sister Cities for many years. She has led the Jr. International Leadership Academy for the past ten years and hosted students from Nagaoka, Japan. She also served as the delegation leader to Japan for the prestigious Harashin scholars program in 2015.
Ms. Oliynyk has served in several leadership positions on the youth board and traveled to several sister cities including Guiyang, China and Bandung, Indonesia. She was also chosen as the recipient of the Sister Cities International Youth Volunteer of the Year award which was presented in Minneapolis, MN at the national conference in July 2015.
“Led by a dedicated board of directors and with the help of more than 2,000 volunteers a year, we want to recognize these individuals for their commitment to our vibrant city, its people and its bright future on the global stage,” said Michael Bennett, Chair of the Board.
Three prestigious youth scholarships were also presented including:
The Yamagata Emerging Leaders Scholar, in honor of Elaine Yamagata and the late Tadashi Yamagata, was presented to Selin Karsi who will travel to Trier, Germany in 2016.
The Fort Worth Japanese Society scholarship was presented to Alisha Sharp who will travel to Nagaoka and Tokyo, Japan.
Henry Chao and Zoe Nichols-Payne were recognized as this year’s Rotary International Scholars. These two ninth grade students will develop and organize a service project to be conducted at a school in Guiyang, China in June 2016.