The Citizen of the World award was first given in 2017. This award recognizes alumni who are fulfilling the school's mission: "The Bright School builds a foundation upon which students become wise and compassionate citizens of the world. Its century of progress fosters the intellectual, artistic, physical, and moral growth of young boys and girls."

   To be eligible for the award, alumni must be current students in high school (grades 9-12), college or graduate school. The winning alumni demonstrate leadership in service to others in the broader community. Anyone may nominate an alumnus or alumna for the award.

   This year, we have two recipients, Julia Fisher and Sana Nisar. Here are excerpts from their nominations:

 

Julia Fisher has been a leader in Baylor's Community Service program and has made an impact on the Chattanooga community, most notably at Westside Youth and Family Development Center. She was selected as the Reading Program Leader as a junior and senior in high school. Julia took on the enormous task of transforming the center’s library into an orderly and comfortable place for children to read books and study. 

   Julia also wrote grants to better the reading program that were funded two years in a row. She wrote a grant to take the students who read the most each semester on an outing to buy a book and have dinner. She also wrote a grant to purchase plaques for the students who read the most from each group and a grant to purchase a book for each student who was graduating (K, 5th or 8th grade) that year to celebrate their success.

   This year, she focused carefully on choosing culturally appropriate books for the students in the after-school program. These books were ones the children requested and were excited to read.

 

Sana Nisar has been a leader at GPS in her work in Amnesty International, Science Troupe, as a school tutor, and Model UN. She did all this while tying for the third highest GPA in her senior class. She graduated with nine AP courses across six different academic disciplines.

   For the GPS chapter of Amnesty International, Sana was among a team of student-leaders who aimed to bring awareness to our community regarding the social justice and human rights issues in Tennessee and across the globe. She helped organize and lead a successful “International Day of the Girl” program that exposed our students to the various methods girls receive (or don’t receive) an education globally.

   Since her goal is to one day to go to medical school, her summers have been focused on spending time in her father’s clinic, her local hospital, or on medical missions. Last summer, she was able to work in a pharmacy in a Peruvian mission. She found this work to be most rewarding because the people she served often spent days traveling to the pop-up clinic.

   Sana was selected to participate in Volunteer Girls State, a week-long citizenship program. She was elected to City Judge and Appellate Court Judge, became a Supreme Court Justice nominee, and earned the prestigious Girls Nation nomination. She has also been an active participant in Model United Nations each year at GPS, serving as co-president as a senior.

   Sana also led the Science Troupe, a group she helped found that plans and conducts interactive experiments monthly at the Creative Discovery Museum for local children’s groups. She finds this work most rewarding because she’s able to teach science to kids that may not have had access to a robust STEM curriculum.

 

Caption: Mr. Morgan presents awards to Sana Nisar ’13, left, and Julia Fisher ’13, right, during the Class of 2013 high school senior party in July.