Education
GTA announces winners of the 2024-2025 Youth Leader Program
GTA
November 14, 2024
From left to right: Kai Landen Duenas, Dina Soriano, Segundo Garrido, Jamie Xu, and Alyssa Marie Pangelinan. (GTA)
(Tamuning, Guam) Thursday, November 14, 2024 – GTA proudly announces the winners of its 2024-2025 Youth Leader Program, which highlighted outstanding student projects aligned with GTA Gives initiatives. This year’s program was highly competitive, with over 60 applicants. Five finalists were recognized for their innovative, community-focused projects, and two top winners were awarded for their exceptional efforts.
Top Five Finalists:
Alyssa Marie Pangelinan – Junior, Simon Sanchez High School (Project: Street of Dreams)
Segundo Garrido – Senior, Tiyan High School (Project: Gollai for Guam)
Dina Soriano – Senior, JFK High School (Project: Revitalize Cocos Crossing)
Kai Landen Duenas – Junior, Guam High School (Project: GTA Grows)
Jamie Xu – Junior, St. John’s School (Project: Music Gives)
Top Two Winners: Among the finalists, the top two winners, Alyssa Marie Pangelinan and Segundo Garrido, were awarded a $1,000 scholarship and 100,000 airline miles each to attend approved competitions or conferences. Alyssa’s project, Street of Dreams, focuses on distributing care packages containing hygiene products, clothes, blankets, and food to underserved individuals, supported by fundraising events and awareness campaigns led by students. Segundo’s project, Gollai for Guam, emphasizes gardening with resource-efficient waste management, aiming to teach local families about growing crops, reducing waste, and composting.
Through GTA Gives, these top two winners will receive direct financial support and essential resources to bring their community projects to life, enabling them to create a lasting impact on Guam’s communities. GTA’s commitment ensures these young leaders have everything they need to turn their vision into reality, fostering meaningful change across the island.
First introduced in 2019 as a key initiative of GTA Gives, the Youth Leader Program invites high school students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher to propose innovative projects addressing Guam’s unique needs. Students are evaluated based on academic achievement, project originality, feasibility, and potential community impact. This year’s winners were recognized Wednesday, November 12 at the GTA Experience Center in Tamuning.
“Through the Youth Leader Program, GTA Gives aims to inspire the next generation of leaders,” said Sharon Davis, GTA’s VP of Community Engagement and External Affairs. “We are honored to support projects that reflect our shared values of community, collaboration, and impact, helping to build a stronger, more connected Guam.”
For more information about the Youth Leader and other GTA Gives initiatives, visit www.gta.net/community.