12 April 25 • 2019
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but also to help inform and educate her
community. Emily organized the stu-
dent walkout protesting gun violence
at FJA, where she has a 4.0 GPA. She
founded the Social Justice Club at her
school and leads the Girls to Women
Club, where she advocates for equality
and education. Emily was chosen
by her administrators to head a task
force regarding changing her school’
s
curriculum and schedule.
Twice Emily has been nominated
for the David Hermelin Scholarship
Award. She excels at Hebrew. For her
bat mitzvah at Adat Shalom, Emily
conducted the entire service, begin-
ning with Shacharit. She chanted all
the readings from the Torah and gave
a d’
var Torah that was thoughtful
and truly related to her own life’
s les-
sons. Since then, Emily has chanted
Torah on many occasions at Adat
Shalom, including Yom Kippur ser-
vices each year. She truly loves her
Yiddishkeit.
JENNA FRIEDMAN
Jenna Friedman of
West Bloomfield is
a junior at Walled
Lake Central and a
member of
UMatter.
Jenna has been
an active volunteer
at Friendship Circle
for four years.
Every Tuesday, she
volunteers at Social Circle with her
buddy, Leila. Over the years, they
have developed a deep connection
and friendship. Jenna has also vol-
unteered at many Friendship Circle
camps and respite programs, logging
more than 200 hours of volunteer
service.
She has overcome her own mental
health and social obstacles and is now
using her journey to empower other
teens to do the same. She is proud-
ly 600+ days clean from self-harm
and has found solutions for her own
OCD, depression and anxiety, which
has made her a great role model for
her peers.
Jenna is a teen leader on the
UMatter board, where she is an advo-
cate for mental health awareness. She
helped lead her high school’
s UMatter
Week, ensuring the whole school
was represented and included. Jenna
noticed hallways with classrooms in
the special education department
were not decorated like the others, so
she assembled a committee to make
sure they were. Jenna also prepared
special activities for those students to
take part in during UMatter Week.
JESSICA GOLDBERG
Jessica Goldberg of
Farmington Hills is
a junior at North
Farmington High
School and belongs
to Adat Shalom
Synagogue. She is
on the executive
leadership board of
UMatter and Teen
Volunteer Corps, which runs volun-
teer projects.
She is also part of the Youth United
program, a cross-denominational
group focused on improvement proj-
ects in her home community.
Jess is also founder of Sib4Sib,
a nonprofit support network for
individuals who have a sibling who
struggles with mental health, whether
it’
s a learning disability or serious
depression. She saw resources for
parents, but not for siblings — so she
created her own network. Now there
are three groups: teens, kids ages 8-12
and a boys-only group. She secured
a licensed social worker to lead dis-
cussions and fundraised and sought
grants to enable kids to participate
and enjoy the group dinner without
cost.
She organized a fundraiser recently,
bringing in significant funds to grow
the program and offer services at a
very subsidized rate or free.
It was not easy for Jessica to create
this group because it meant “outing”
her brother’
s mental health challeng-
es, and she worried about him being
stigmatized. However, she, he and her
parents recognized by doing so she
could help so many others.
STACEY HIRSCH
Stacey Hirsch of
West Bloomfield is
a junior at
Bloomfield Hills
High School; she
belongs to Temple
Israel.
Stacey was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in
November 2016. Pediatric MS is very
rare, and she has handled her diagno-
sis and accompanying physical lim-
itations with grace and maturity.
Stacey has embraced this life chal-
lenge by becoming a strong advocate
for pediatric MS, raising money
for the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society (NMSS) and creating a Walk
MS team — FAMS (Families Fighting
Against MS) — to help secure funds
to find a cure. She is a founding and
active board member of FAMS, a
Michigan nonprofit.
Stacey is determined to pursue a
career in medicine, particularly neu-
rology, focusing on pediatrics and
multiple sclerosis.
She is completing her second year
as a board member of YFTI, Temple
Israel’
s youth group. She attends
Monday night school and YFTI meet-
ings weekly as well as all YFTI trips
and events.
She is also a founding board mem-
ber for the ORT Teen Board, area
teens who raise money and support
ORT America.
She is an honor student, pursuing
studies focused on advanced science
and math, and is a member of the
National Honor Society, yearbook
and poms.
LILY KOLLIN
Lily Kollin of
Farmington Hills is
a senior at North
Farmington High
School; she belongs
to Temple Israel.
She is a founder/
president of NFHS’
Students Demand
Action (SDA)
group, an advocacy
group for gun violence prevention.
Lily organized two successful walk-
outs and a town hall meeting with
community leaders and students. She
also helped organize a multi-school
trip to Chicago to participate with
March of the Living efforts. She also
has done public speaking, served as
a panelist and performed her spoken
word poetry at multiple venues.
For her efforts, she won the
Optimist Leader Award and, with
her fellow SDA members, won the
NAACP Great Expectations Award.
Lily spoke at Temple Israel’
s multi-
faith unity service following the Tree
of Life shooting in Pittsburgh.
Within BBYO, she was chapter shli-
chah, president and is current region-
al shlichah.
Lily is an all-A student. She is a
member of the school’
s marching
band and the Farmington United
Percussion Ensemble. She also volun-
teers at Fleischman Residence, where
she leads Friday night services.
Lily is working with the NFHS
administration to bring Every
Brilliant Thing, a play about suicide
prevention, to the high school, and
to bring in experts for a panel dis-
cussion and support for students and
parents.
EVAN KRASNICK
Evan Krasnick of
Huntington Woods
is a senior at
Berkley High
School and a
Congregation Beth
Shalom member.
He was one of
five BHS juniors
selected to partic-
ipate in a yearlong diversity immer-
sion program, Generation of Promise,
through which he engaged with teens
from 12 diverse Detroit-area high
schools monthly, learning about
other religions and cultures, while
sharing his own.
Evan has also been involved with
Teen Screens since his bar mitzvah
year and now is president. This BHS
organization donates computers and
laptops to students in need. He works
with local professionals to acquire
used laptops/tablets, refurbish them
and then donate them.
Evan studied in Israel with Jewish
National Fund’
s Alexander Muss
High School in Israel program. He
participated in his school’
s commu-
nity service trip to the Dominican
Republic, volunteering and teaching
English to underprivileged students.
As a junior, he founded ECKO,
a technology consulting company
helping people with computer, smart-
phone and internet issues. Evan offers
training/consulting to older adults
and works with technology profes-
sionals to install WiFi and security
systems.
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