Volunteering a Way of Life for Sapna Rao

Name: Sapna Rao 

Age: 17 

School:

Extracurricular activities: Varsity tennis, Secretary General of the Model United Nations Club, Model Judiciary Team, member of the Math, Science, Spanish, History and National Honor Societies.

Accomplishment: Sapna Rao, a  senior with an outstanding record of community service, is currently serving a term as Lieutenant Governor of Division 20B of the Capital District Board of Key Club International.  

Key to Success: Rao joined her school’s chapter of Key Club International during her freshman year because she wanted to volunteer in the community. Joining the world’s oldest and largest service program for high school students allowed Rao to not only give back, but also meet new people and become part of a global network of over 250,000 peers who shared her commitment to helping others. 

Since serving as a general Key Club member during her freshman year, Sapna Rao has continued to increase her involvement with the organization. She served as Treasurer her sophomore year and was a co-president of the CVHS chapter her junior year. This year, as a senior, Rao has been given the opportunity to serve Key Club International at the regional level as Lieutenant Governor (LTG) of Division 20B of the Capital District Board.  

Joining Rao on the board are student leaders from throughout Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Specifically, Rao’s role as an LTG is to serve as a liaison between Key Club International and each of the eight local schools she’s been assigned to, including Centreville, , and  schools. She’s also responsible for holding divisional meetings, collecting reports, and planning large-scale volunteer activities.  

In her new role as a Key Club Lieutenant Governor, Rao has big plans for the 2011-2012 academic year. “I want to encourage the board members of all of my assigned schools to devote more of their time to this club and just be passionate about it,” she said, “I think the academic and social pressures of high school make Key Club largely a ‘résumé’ activity for some members—something that goes on a college application. But for me, I think about how strong Key Club International is as an organization."

"We truly can make a difference as long as we put our mind to things,” she said.  

This year Rao also hopes to raise $1,000 for The Eliminate Project, a Kiwanis International, Key Club International, and UNICEF joint effort to end maternal and neonatal tetanus.  

Rao spent the summer doing volunteer work in India at a preschool for impoverished children. “It’s not directly related to Key Club,” she said of her most recent volunteering experience, “but the values of leadership and caring and inclusiveness that I have taken from Key Club have definitely helped my efforts.” 

She hopes to major in engineering in college and eventually become a high school math teacher and Key Club sponsor.