Breaking News
Features

Commitment to service: Frontier senior learns through leadership

By Kristen Hainkel 3 min read

MATAMORAS – Frontier High School senior Maquela Walker has been recognized by a national organization for her commitment to serving her community.

AmeriCorps issues the President's Volunteer Services Award yearly, recognizing individuals who give their time in their communities. Walker said she had to be nominated by someone, and earned the award by accumulating 100 hours across several organizations.

"Over the course of the last year, I volunteered at the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley, Marietta Memorial Hospital, Newport Junior Athletics Association, and Building Bridges to Careers," she said.

In recognition of her achievement, Walker received a congratulatory letter from The White House, a commemorative pin, and certificate with her name on it.

Walker said she enjoyed all of the volunteer activities equally. She said she gets a deep sense of satisfaction from helping others.

"I just love seeing people being happy," she said. "It helps me feel good about being able to help someone with what I helped them with."

Walker is also learning leadership skills by participating in seminars such as the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership serving as her class's Seminar Ambassador. She attended a session at Marietta College in 2022 for the Ohio-South Region. She also attended the World Leadership Congress in Chicago with the organization in July 2022.

"I loved meeting a bunch of new people and I loved learning new skills to bring back to my community," she said.

The biggest takeaway she learned was how to demonstrate leadership.

"To be a leader, you don't have to be the loudest in the room," she said. "You can lead by example."

Walker also said being exposed to different people helped her to open up.

For her senior year, Walker is looking forward to enjoying different activities for the last time such as prom, cheering for the basketball team as a member of the cheerleading squad and playing softball in the spring.

"I love being there for my team. I love the adrenaline and seeing the crowd getting excited for games," she said.

Walker has been a member of the cheerleading squad since the eighth grade year. She's also active in softball, having played the sport since she was five.

"I have always loved being able to field and bat," she said.

Her favorite sports-related memory is the Frontier softball team placing second in the OVAC tournament last spring.

"We were connected and worked together really well," she said of the team.

Walker is also looking ahead to college. While she doesn't know where she will go, she's set on her major and possible career path.

"I will major in nursing. I enjoy caring for people and it's something I've always done," she said.

In order to prepare for college, Walker is taking courses at Washington State Community College. She said the most interesting courses so far are Microbiology and Human Anatomy.

"I really like being at the college level," she said. "It’ll help me once I get to university. I will already have experience."

Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com

Starting at /week.