At George Mason High School, our principal, Mr. Matt Hills, set a standard in the school for all students to excel in mind, body, and character. In this series, The Lasso looks for students who excel in these different yet equally valuable areas. This week, The Lasso digs deeper with freshman, Ciara Curtin, on her roles at Mason with clubs and other extracurricular activities, as well as her charity outside of school.
Involvement in extracurricular activities is a common characteristic of students at George Mason. Students generally attend their club meetings a few times each month to talk about issues and plan events, but for freshman Ciara Curtin, the activities are non-stop. She balances out her work in a non-profit organization for the less fortunate in D.C, being an active peer buddy for the school’s Best Buddies club, and representing her grade as treasurer for the Student Council Association (SCA).
Curtin makes many contributions to the Falls Church community, but her most prominent work is helping her father, the CEO of a non-profit organization called “DC Central Kitchen” in the heart of Washington D.C. They turn over pounds of unused food from restaurants and use it to make healthy meals for the less fortunate, as well as trying to incorporate healthy meals into schools.
Another important part of DC Central Kitchen is their motto – “food alone won’t end hunger.” To support this, they have created a job training program that employs people coming out of homelessness, incarceration, and addiction. Curtin thinks that this is by far the most important part of the organization.
Occasionally, Curtin goes to the kitchen with her family and helps make meals.
“Usually, you are working in the kitchen as a volunteer and you’re doing anything they need based on whatever meal they are preparing, so you might be chopping vegetables or sorting pasta,” Curtin said. “Because I’m little, I am not capable of certain things like using the stove and stuff like that. So mostly I do chopping [and] slicing.”
Curtin has also had a lot of experience with the SCA at Many Ellen Henderson, which translated to help her obtain the role of treasurer of the freshman SCA. Curtin helps with creating fundraisers and other daily activities that the freshmen can participate in.
At the beginning of the school year, Curtin recalls going to the club fair and being overwhelmed by the choices of clubs to contribute too.
“I remember signing up for more than I probably should have because everything sounded so awesome,” Curtin said.
She enjoyed the flexibility of clubs at Mason and the opportunities to participate in so many activities.
“Everyone was very nice at the club fair,” Curtin said. “I think that is really the difference from Mary Ellen Henderson, that you can have a chance to collaborate with all these awesome people and be able to express yourself in whatever way that might be and not be stressed about it.”
Although Curtin couldn’t do all of the clubs she signed up for due to time restraints, the ones she has put a lot time into include a very popular club at George Mason: Best Buddies Club, a club that focuses on inclusion of the students at George Mason with intellectual disabilities. Curtin plays a vital role in the club as a peer who has a direct relationship with one of the buddies in the program.
“I am the peer buddy for Amara. What we did this year that was a little different is that there were so many people that wanted to be peer buddies, [so] there are two or three families. [This] means there are two peer buddies and one buddy, who is someone that has an intellectual disability… my family is Avery Wombacher and Amara Rice which is really fun,” Curtin said.
Curtin spreads her positive energy throughout Mason, as well as the surrounding communities and has become a vital part of the George Mason community.
