Teens strike congressional gold

Two home-schooled teens from Redmond, Keren Stewart and Crystal Marshall, were awarded The Congressional Award Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor for youth service, in Washington, D.C. on June 19.

Stewart and Marshall were among 237 students nationwide who were recognized with Congress’ only award for youth. The Congressional Award Foundation encourages participants between the ages of 14 and 23 to set and achieve goals in four different disciplines: Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness and Expedition/Exploration.

Stewart, who is 16, and Marshall, who is 17, both attend Running Start classes at Bellevue Community College and completed their Congressional Award Gold Medal requirements through a variety of endeavors.

Stewart’s older brother, Michael, had previously earned the award and inspired the girls to enter the program. Some of the projects they tackled were extensions of things they had already tried and wanted to master. In other cases, they took on something brand-new.

For example, Stewart had already volunteered at Hopelink’s Carnation food bank and the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle, but increased her time commitment, eventually clocking more than 500 hours.

She also planted trees in Redmond parks and spent seven days in a small tribal village in the jungles of Ecuador, South America to experience a culture very different than her own.

“Music was something I’d always loved and I wanted to master a piece,” Stewart added, referring to the complete Sonata in A minor by Mozart. She also learned how to garden and tried acting in plays at Trinity Baptist Church.

For her physical fitness goals, she combined Jazzercise, running and walking on a treadmill, again pushing herself to do more than usual.

Marshall contributed more than 400 hours of volunteer service to a Christian ministry which organized a party, with free meals and gifts, for more than 17,000 low-income people in St. Louis.

She perfected her tap-dancing skills, which she’d started at five years old at the former Washington Academy of Performing Arts, with more recent classes at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center.

Marshall also completed speech and debate training, played soccer with the Lake Washington Youth Soccer Association, ran 30 minutes daily and traveled to a bilingual school in Guadalajara, Mexico, overcoming language barriers and seeing how children get along in overcrowded classrooms.

On their trip to D.C., besides receiving their awards from Congressman Dave Reichert, Stewart, Marshall and their dads enjoyed visiting the White House, Capitol and monuments.

Stewart, who hopes to become a nurse, commented, “The Congressional program has been great. I don’t want to stop there, I want to continue volunteering and stretching myself.”

Marshall sees herself pursuing a career in medicine, education or politics. She said the Congressional program “imparts a sense of responsibility to your community and yourself — it’s a really good way to teach yourself commitments, organizational skills, drive and endurance.”

To learn more about the Congressional Award program, visit www.congressionalaward.org.

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