Diya Singh
Pittsburgh Obama (The Barack Obama Academy of International Studies), 11
Parent(s)/Guardian(s):
Deepinder Dhaliwal
Academic Achievement
High Honor Roll – Has made high honor roll (highest academic achievement) every semester of high school, recipient – 3 Years
Outstanding Committee Chair – Award recognizing Committee Chairs within Youth and Government for exemplary duty, recipient – 1 Year
Juneteenth Essay Contest – Stop The Violence PGH (2nd place), recipient – 1 Year
YMCA National Youth Advocate – Selected as ½ students in Pennsylvania to visit Washington D.C. to lobby Members of Congress on behalf of the YMCA, Youth Advocate – 1 Year
Conference on National Affairs – Selected as 1/25 students in Pennsylvania to attend national conference in North Carolina where delegates share proposals for legislation and discuss issues of national importance, attendee – 2 Years
Extracurricular Activities
YMCA Youth and Government – participates in a mock state government program, regionally elected to be a Committee Chair (2021 & 2022), and elected to serve as the Youth Speaker of the House (2022-2023). Works year round to improve the Youth and Government program with team of elected leaders and staff, and is running a campaign to be Youth Governor for 2024, Youth Speaker of the House – 3 Years
PPS Students and Government council, Member – 3 Years
SLB Radio – Interned with SLB for the Youth Media Advocacy project a peer and I collaborated on a podcast discussing the impact of COVID-19 on mental health (2020-2021), Remake Learning Days Youth Ambassador → Attended remake learning days events and created audio reviews that were played on SLB radio (2021), Youth Media Corps → tasked with creating radio segments that discuss issues of importance to youth, Various roles – 3 Years
The Eagle Times (school newspaper), – Co-Founder, Editor, Head of Community Outreach – 2 Years
Obama Girls Varsity Soccer, Member – 3 Years
Community Involvement
Canvassed/volunteered for local and statewide political campaigns, Volunteer – 3 Years
School Improvement – Spends time after school helping with physical school improvement (painting, cleaning storage spaces, etc), Member – 3 Years
Pittsburgh Promise Ambassador – employed by the Pittsburgh Promise to assist peers with post secondary plans as well as registering for the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship, helps improve Promise social media, Student Ambassador – 1 Year
Northside Chronicle – Interned for the Northside Chronicle and wrote several articles that were published in local newspaper, intern – 1 Year
Children of Steel (Obama) – helps lead tutoring and community service organization, Program Director – 1 Year
Plans
In the future, I’d like to attend college in Washington DC to study Political Science or Government. In the farther future, I hope to attend law school, and hold public office in some capacity (local or state, and maybe eventually nationally), to work to combat partisanship and political divisiveness, but also promote compromise to strengthen democracy (to whatever degree that may be possible).