Martha Kyolaba, an 18-year-old senior at Evanston Township High School, wants to become a nurse.
“It’s something I have always wanted to do,” Kyolaba said.
And now she’s on her way.
Kyolaba was one of six Evanston teens who received leadership awards Thursday night as part of the YWCA’s first annual Young Women’s Leadership Awards dinner, held at the Evanston Women’s Club.
The six young women were chosen for their participation in church, school and community groups. Many of them have overcome an obstacle and still succeeded, said Christie Dailey, YWCA executive director. The YWCA sponsored the dinner to honor the women and to raise money for “Destiny Girls,” an after-school mentoring program that teaches girls from ages 9 to 14.
“I think it is just really important for girls to have models of leadership,” Dailey said.
After she emigrated from Uganda in 1992, Kyolaba volunteered for three-and-a-half years at Evanston Hospital. As part of an ETHS health rotation program, Kyolaba observed a Caesarean section.
After persevering through that experience, she knew she could be a nurse.
“I didn’t get grossed out,” Kyolaba said. She said she plans on attending Oakton Community College and then Quincy University.
Sarah Raleigh, a 16-year-old sophomore at ETHS, also received the award. After Raleigh’s father died the summer of 2001, she said she spent more than 120 hours at the National Kidney Foundation in Chicago.
Raleigh said after she graduates from college she wants to make enough money to donate to the foundation in order to name a building after her father.
Raleigh, a member of the ETHS track team, missed traveling with her team to the Illinois State Championship in Charleston, Ill., so that she could attend the dinner.
Seventh-grader Chasity Cooper said she receives straight As at Haven Middle School and is president of a youth organization at her church. She won the Justin Wynn Award, an African-American achievement award and academic honor.
Cooper’s mother, Kathy Wideman-Cooper, said she was overjoyed.
“Whatever (Chasity) does she always comes out on top,” Cooper said.
The other grade school student recognized, Nura Aly, 14, an eighth-grader at King Lab School, plays the violin. Aly also participates in leadership training for teens with disabilities and started a disability-awareness committee at King Lab.
Latrice Gibson, a freshman at ETHS, said she has been singing since she was three years old. Besides directing her choir at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Evanston, Gibson is the editor of the church monthly newsletter.
“I want to be a gospel singer and actress,” Gibson said.
Another winner, Michelle Hemphill, helps mentor minority students in the Quest Minority Mentoring Program at ETHS. As part of this program, she encourages black students to take honors classes.
Hemphill said she understands how hard it is to be a black student in honors classes. She felt awkward when she was the only black person in her biology honors class her freshman year.
“(ETHS) really gives you a chance to have a voice in the school,” Hemphill said.
