continued from page 16
continued on page 18
16 | OCTOBER 8 • 2020
Jews in the D
skills and find new songs and
tunes to bring to his youth
group.
Ian has taken every oppor-
tunity to be a leader with his
voice and his guitar. Ian heard
about a music and leadership
weekend presented by the
URJ and wanted to be a part
of this experience to better
YFTI’
s ruach and rhythm. He
was one of 10 teens to take
part of the URJ’
s Nashir: Song
Leading for Action, where
he led Shabbat services for
more than 500 Jewish teens.
Ian took that energy from the
leadership cohort and came
home to lead YFTI’
s Ski Trip
weekend in music and celebra-
tion. Ian’
s example as YFTI’
s
teen song leader has created
more participation in services,
a new energy to YFTI and a
resurgence in teens wanting to
help lead services.
Along with his involvement
in YFTI, Ian is an active mem-
ber of BBYO and has also been
on five regional committees
and is the vice president of the
Jewish Student Union at North
Farmington High School.
MIA LEWIS
Mia, 16, who is
a senior at
Seaholm High
School, is a
member of
Temple Israel
and is actively
involved with
BBYO and PeerCorps, a part of
Repair the World that works with
young Jewish teens using Jewish
values to try to bridge the gap
between the city of Detroit and
the suburbs. The Birmingham
resident volunteered every week
at a community garden and
helped tutor kids in Detroit. She
is also a member of the Jewish
Fund Teen Board, where she
works on philanthropy and mak-
ing a difference to help others.
At Seaholm, she was on the
board for the Jewish Culture
Club, which tried to educate
their mostly Christian school
about Jewish values by creating
opportunities such as bringing in
Holocaust survivors and holiday
events. She was also active in the
American Sign Language Club
and Crafts 4 Kids (making crafts
for cancer patients in hospitals).
In BBYO, she is the vice pres-
ident of Dora Savage BBG and
ran as a candidate for Student of
the Year for the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society, running
a campaign to raise $15,000
for blood cancer patients and
research. She was also a member
of NHS and studies hard to keep
a near-perfect grade point aver-
age, overcoming struggles with
dyslexia.
CARA LOPATIN
Cara, 17, has
had to deal with
some of the
most stressful
events while
maintaining a
positive attitude,
strong academ-
ics, being community ser-
vice-minded and serving as a
positive role model for both
adults and kids.
This senior at Farber Hebrew
Day School had a malignant
brain tumor when she was in sec-
ond grade and then again when
she was in fourth grade. She had
chemotherapy, proton beam
radiation and a stem cell trans-
plant. She missed a lot of school
and continues to deal with the
effects of the tumor and its treat-
ments. Despite that, she became
involved in the community as a
youth group leader, a Torah and
Megillah reader and as a “moti-
vational” speaker as a cancer
survivor, both in her schools and
synagogues.
Cara, who lives in Huntington
Woods, is also a co-chair of
B’
nei Akiva Detroit where she
plans activities and supervises
counselors. She is a group leader,
greeter, kiddush setter-upper,
and all-around volunteer at her
synagogue, Kehillat Etz Chayim.
She volunteers at Friendship
Circle, serves on the Jewish Fund
Teen Board and continues to
be involved in Chai Lifeline, an
organization serving kids with
serious life-threatening illnesses
and their families.
ISAAC MINTZ
Isaac, 18, of
West
Bloomfield,
graduated from
West
Bloomfield
High School in
2020 and now
attends the University of
Michigan where he looks to
study philosophy, political sci-
ence and economics. He is a
member of Temple Shir Shalom.
At school, Isaac was a school
ambassador and student mem-
ber of the administration.
He achieved the Outstanding
Civics Student award in 2019.
Isaac was an active member of
DECA, a business competition
program, where he was recog-
nized as the State Champion in
the Retail Merchandising Series
Event, received an Award of
Excellence in the Mathematics
Examination in the Retail
Merchandising Series at the
state level and an Award of
Excellence for all standards
of performance in the Retail
Merchandising Series at the
international level. At West
Bloomfield High School, he
was a member of the National
Honor Society, a staff writer
for the school newsmagazine,
co-president of the WBHS Yoga
Club and the Earth Club and
Executive Chair of Policy and
Communications. Additionally,
he won the Dale Carnegie
Highest Award for Achievement
in 2018.
He was happy to have worked
during high school, which has
included an internship with
Robin Schwartz PR, a robot-
ics internship at Lawrence
Technological University (where
he focused on artificial intelli-
gence, coding and autonomous
vehicles) and freelance work
(babysitting, auto detailing,
lawn work, etc.). He is currently
growing his photography busi-
ness.
Isaac has given back to the
community through over 100
hours of community service,
including serving youth in
the After School Program in
Detroit at an underprivileged
school, working with the Adat
Shalom Teen Volunteer Corps
and with J-Serve, providing tech
help to the elderly and tutoring
students at school. He won the
Youth Volunteer Leadership
Award of Greater West
Bloomfield in 2018 and 2020.
HANNAH RASHTY
Hannah, 16,
of West
Bloomfield, is a
junior at West
Bloomfield
High School
and member of
Keter Torah and
BBYO, and she spends her sum-
mers at Camp Tamarack. She is
very passionate and involved in
many sports at her school from
field hockey to tennis to basket-
ball.
She has been involved in
student leadership at her high
school and is currently on the