Leadership Training Institute

Student Spotlight

Kaitlyn Carcia

Bio:

Between completing assignments for English class, using social networking sites, and applying for extra-curricular programs, I probably have written over a million biographies in my lifetime. However, I am the most honored to be writing about myself for LTI as a part of the 2009 Spring Session alumni.

My name is Kaitlyn Carcia and I am from a tiny little town called North Reading. I just turned seventeen and I am a junior at North Reading High School. I live for cookie dough ice cream, deep chats, staying up late, going to concerts, and playing Tetris. My friends and family mean the sun, moon, and the stars to me. I credit my achievements to their unconditional support and love.

A psychic once told me that I was an alien who choose to be reincarnated as a human with a purpose to this world. To be honest, I am not really sure if I do have a purpose or where I am going in my life, but I'm on my way and plan to be traveling there with a smile on my face with every step I take.

Summary of PAL:

The goal of my final project was to raise mental health awareness within my community. To achieve my goal, I implemented a program within my high school called PAL, also known as Peer Assistance Leadership. PAL is a program that aims to promote healthy relationships, high self esteem, and positive attitudes for younger people within the community. A pal is another word for a buddy or friend-a person who is reliable, supportive, and trustworthy. The twenty members of this program work on many levels to achieve these goals.

This past fall, PAL sponsored TWLOA's (To Write Love on Her Arms) Day. TWLOA is a suicide prevention cause working to spread the message everyone was created to love and be loved. In addition, this spring the program will be promoting "Fat Talk Free Week," a week dedicated to drawing attention to negative body image issues. Members will also be mentoring middle schoolers from January through April.

LTI's support has been crucial in starting up PAL at my high school. LTI has taught me to approach situations with an open mind for correctly solving problems and I was inspired by the enthusiasm of the mentors and board of advisors that always stressed the importance of hard work and dedication. There have been quite a few obstacles while implementing this program, but LTI played a big role in giving me the strength to solve these problems by viewing all challenges in different perspectives. LTI was a challenge itself, but the hard work that was put into the spring session was carried over to my own program.

Expanding The LTI Family

January 2010

Congratulations to the LTI Expansion committee for a successful expansion IAP trip to Brazil. During the month of January, 5 of our LTI staff members (Amanda, Tina, Michaela, Susan, and David) traveled to Brazil and helped set a new LTI chapter that is now running strong with two co-directors and preparing for their first session in August.

Also, On January 31st, LTI had its annual opening ceremony to welcome all the new students and served as a great way to educate both the students and their parents on the LTI philosophy, and to show off some of the amazing projects that have already been implemented by LTI alumni. LTI would like to again congratulate and welcome into the LTI community the following new members: Kaitlyn Carcia, Preeti Srinivasan, Osa Igiede, Alex Yen, Nidhi Krishnan, Naomi Tsegaye, Evan Heller, Kenneth Cottrell, Jonathan Vega, Jonathan Celestin, Andrew Fortes, Nick Doyle, Rebecca Richard, Kadedra Williams, and Rafeal Silveria.