Hero Story

Annie Garcia, a senior at Okemos High School, is very involved and engaged at school and in her community. She is such an enthusiastic person with incredible dedication to philanthropy and serving the community! Her positive energy influences those around her and leads to awesome activities, discussions, and mentoring. She has accumulated an impressive list of volunteer activities and sincerely cares about making a difference in the world. And all this is in addition to maintaining a 4.0 GPA since 7th grade!

Annie has volunteered in several capacities – as an Okemos High School ACTION volunteer performing service for the Okemos community, as a YMCA counselor in training, as a Teen Volunteer with Sparrow Hospital, and as a science tutor/mentor for Okemos Public Montessori at Central school 3rd graders. Since her freshman year, Annie has also served the Capital Region Community Foundation as a Youth Action Committee (YAC) member, local teens that engage in philanthropy, service, and grantmaking. In her Senior year of YAC, she was selected as the Student Trustee for 2021, serving as a full voting member of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. As part of her YAC membership, since sophomore year, Annie has served in several leadership roles. She was elected by her peers as the 2021 Vice President, guiding the group in its monthly activities and grantmaking efforts. Annie has given the YAC a very credible and respectable voice in the Foundation overall. The staff and board members highly value her perspective on community issues.

Another way that Annie dedicates herself is making change in the area of diversity and equity. She is a member of the United in Social Progress Committee a school club devoted to encouraging diversity, equality, and unity within the OHS family. She helps create and execute measures to support mental health awareness, the power of words, diversity, and community/citizenship. As part of her Community Foundation board term, Annie volunteered to provide a youth perspective on the Racial Equity subcommittee, helping to draft a DEI statement and outline a plan on how the Foundation would address racial inequity internally and in the community. In her own words: "I'm extremely passionate about helping others and being the best version of myself that I can be!"