Filter heroes statewide, by region or by cause.
Ann Arbor
Hero Story
Anita Gaenko is a Huron High school junior from Ann Arbor, MI. Throughout her high-school years, and even before, she touched the lives of many through her volunteering to help the community. As a student teacher at the Ann Arbor Math Olympiad Club (2020-2023), she spent many hours teaching her students, passing on her passion for math, chemistry, and computer science, igniting a spark of curiosity in the minds of her students of elementary-school and middle-school age. She is an active member of her school's NHS (National Honor Society) chapter since 2022, where she helps lead the teacher project committee. As part of NHS she regularly contributes to making her school and local community a better, cleaner, and more educated place, by helping with clean-up missions and organizing collaborations between teachers and students.
She is also a miRcore Volunteer (2020-2023), and a member of the miRcore advocacy and education committees, always ready to spread the values of miRcore: science, compassion, and collaboration. This mission is particularly important nowadays, as so many people are feeling overwhelmed with contradictory messages that often lack scientific or even factual merits, but are full of negative feelings towards "others". Anita's dedication to coaching the students of Clague Middle School for Science Olympiad events (Potions and Poisons, Dynamic Planet, Food Science and Can't Judge A Powder) since 2020, for which she used her own materials and resources, took the Clague Science Olympiad team to the National level for the first time ever. Recognizing the importance of leveling the playing field for everyone, in 2022 Anita co-founded a non-profit organization A2Aspire that offers hands-on workshops in chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, and astronomy open to everyone for free. About 80 students from Ann Arbor, Canton and Ypsilanti attended 4 workshops organized by A2Aspire. Being herself an accomplished You Be The Chemist (YBTC) contestant (3rd place at the State level at individual competition) she passes on her knowledge and her skills to younger students: the team she trained and coached in years 2020-2021, during the peak of the COVID-19 related lockdowns, became the first in the State competition and 5th in the YBTC Nationals. Not stopping at this, she continued instructing students, training a group of 10 students from Ann Arbor community in 2021-2022, teaching them chemistry through interactive sessions and preparing them to be the new YBTC contestants. With all my heart, I nominate Anita Gaenko to be recognized as a Michigan Hero, as her work served to leverage and catalyze innovation, educate the community, and build a stronger Michigan.
Ann Arbor
Hero Story
Anita Gaenko is a Huron High school junior from Ann Arbor, MI. Throughout her high-school years, and even before, she touched the lives of many through her volunteering to help the community. As a student teacher at the Ann Arbor Math Olympiad Club (2020-2023), she spent many hours teaching her students, passing on her passion for math, chemistry, and computer science, igniting a spark of curiosity in the minds of her students of elementary-school and middle-school age. She is an active member of her school's NHS (National Honor Society) chapter since 2022, where she helps lead the teacher project committee. As part of NHS she regularly contributes to making her school and local community a better, cleaner, and more educated place, by helping with clean-up missions and organizing collaborations between teachers and students.
She is also a miRcore Volunteer (2020-2023), and a member of the miRcore advocacy and education committees, always ready to spread the values of miRcore: science, compassion, and collaboration. This mission is particularly important nowadays, as so many people are feeling overwhelmed with contradictory messages that often lack scientific or even factual merits, but are full of negative feelings towards "others". Anita's dedication to coaching the students of Clague Middle School for Science Olympiad events (Potions and Poisons, Dynamic Planet, Food Science and Can't Judge A Powder) since 2020, for which she used her own materials and resources, took the Clague Science Olympiad team to the National level for the first time ever. Recognizing the importance of leveling the playing field for everyone, in 2022 Anita co-founded a non-profit organization A2Aspire that offers hands-on workshops in chemistry, computer science, earth and environmental sciences, and astronomy open to everyone for free. About 80 students from Ann Arbor, Canton and Ypsilanti attended 4 workshops organized by A2Aspire. Being herself an accomplished You Be The Chemist (YBTC) contestant (3rd place at the State level at individual competition) she passes on her knowledge and her skills to younger students: the team she trained and coached in years 2020-2021, during the peak of the COVID-19 related lockdowns, became the first in the State competition and 5th in the YBTC Nationals. Not stopping at this, she continued instructing students, training a group of 10 students from Ann Arbor community in 2021-2022, teaching them chemistry through interactive sessions and preparing them to be the new YBTC contestants. With all my heart, I nominate Anita Gaenko to be recognized as a Michigan Hero, as her work served to leverage and catalyze innovation, educate the community, and build a stronger Michigan.