LAKOTA OPTIMISTS SELECT JUNIOR TEENS OF THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER
The Lakota Optimist Club has selected Lakota East Junior Heath Stephens and Lakota West Junior Raj Doshi as Teenagers of the Month for November.
Heath Stephens, son of Diane Mueller and stepson of Patrick Mueller, displays a wide variety of school activities which include participation in the Lakota East interscholastic track program, involvement in the student magazine "The Spark", The East Element Literary Magazine and the "Under Pressure" peer intervention student acting troupe. Heath's acting talents come to the forefront as he performs a number of skits, which directly address student issues of concern. The "Under Pressure" group has performed skits for hundreds and hundreds of young people in an effort to more effectively "connect" on current student issues of concern. These skits are designed to help young people understand and cope with problems in their own lives and those about them.
As an indication of his leadership abilities, Heath was chosen to represent Lakota East at the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Conference in Colorado. This conference teaches leadership skills to young people in an effort to have them become more effective peer group leaders in their own schools and communities. Heath also volunteers in the "Little Raskals" community service program that assists community members with household projects they may not be able to complete by themselves. He has further served his community as a volunteer for Reach Out Lakota. To accent his community involvement, Heath has also worked on the "Bridges of Liberty Township" project where volunteers assist in painting over graffiti on the bridges in Liberty Township. Despite a wide variety of time consuming volunteer activities; Heath continues to excels in the classroom where he maintains an "A" GPA.
Raj Doshi, son of Dawn Caudill and Vijay Doshi, is also involved in a large number of school activities which include Mu Alpha Theta math honorary where he is currently serving as president elect, membership in the foreign language club and the Lakota Singers choral group. Raj has been extremely successful competing in regional and national math competitions, placing in the top ten on several occasions. To highlight his math competition accomplishments, Raj placed 4th, 11th and 13th on the national level in three different categories at the Mu Alpha Theta National Convention. He was selected MVP and played an important role on the 2000 GMC champion Lakota Chess Team. Along with a wide variety of school and community activities, Raj is equally accomplished in his academic endeavors where he is ranked #1 in his class at Lakota West with a 4.7 GPA
Raj school and community volunteer activities include the Mercy Work Cooperative, writing questions for junior high math competitions, working as a junior high math contest monitor and assisting with child care at PTSO meetings at Heritage and the Lakota Early Childhood Center. He donates time and talents in the area of indoor rock climbing at the Blue Ash Y, serving as both a judge and route setter. Raj's hobbies are rock climbing, chess, soccer and designing web sites. He is a member of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society and the United States Chess Federation.
The Lakota Optimist Club is truly proud to recognize the efforts and involvement of Heath Stephens and Raj Doshi by naming them as the Teens of the Month for November.
