The Woman’s Club of Arlington has a long history of sponsoring outstanding high school girls who are juniors for attendance at Girl’s Career Institute, an annual event at Douglass Residential College on the campus of Rutgers University sponsored by the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
This year’s delegates from the WCA were Isabella Held and Joyce Awad, of Kearny High School. They recently reported their experiences to the club at a meeting.
Held is currently exploring her artistic abilities by partaking in AP art classes and independent study periods. She is very passionate about her Academy of Dance classes, while also working her hardest as a varsity athlete in cross country and track and field. In addition to serving as vice president in Student Government Association, she actively participates in student life by engaging in as many student-led activities as possible. She also likes to contribute to the community by helping as an altar server at St. Cecilia Church. Her time at GCI changed Held’s perspective on college — she had planned to go to a community college but now she will apply to four-year colleges in the area like NYU, Rutgers Newark and Montclair University.
Awad is also at the top of her class and has an extensive list of extracurricular activities. Of Peruvian and Egyptian descent, she was born in New Jersey. She plays basketball, wrestles and rows in crew. She participates in river clean ups and 5K runs because she loves nature. Finally, she also enjoys being with students, so she volunteers at summer camp at church and tutors students in high school. Awad hopes to attend a military college like West Point. She is interested in the FBI and was able to attend an FBI workshop at GCI which was led by an FBI agent and her daughter.
Both girls say they found GCI to be rewarding. The four day ‘mini-college experience’ gave them the opportunity to sample college living in a dorm, eating in a cafeteria and attending lectures and workshops. These young women learned about career choices from women working in a variety of professions, trades and academic disciplines. They also had the opportunity network with other delegates from all over New Jersey.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.