WHITNEY THOMPSON

Whitney Thompson has a unique ability to motivate others while improving her community at the same time. Though she is a youth, when it comes to leadership and community service, there is no task she is not ready to undertake. Her record of accomplishments is astounding and would even be considerable for an adult. Whitney is one of 30 young Texans to serve on the Texas Youth Action Council. The selection process is vigorous, and her selection attests to her accomplishments in her community and her abilities to lead and inspire others. She was also selected to serve on Youth Service America’s National Youth Action Council.

Whitney is the founder of the Jessica Landry Wellish City Heroes Legend Team. This team is now a national model for all City Heroes high school based teams in the United States. Under Whitney’s leadership, the team has about 150 members and completes one to three service projects each month. When she saw what she and her team had accomplished, she knew others could be doing the same. Whitney took it upon herself to contact another high school and gave them aid so they, too, could establish their own City Heroes Team. The new team, Southside High School Carpe Diem Team now also boasts of 150 members committed to serving. As a member of the City Heroes Advisory Council, she is working to establish more teams in the San Antonio area.

Whitney’s leadership and service to others has inspired her classmates to volunteer, supplied assistance to hundreds of individuals and many non-profit organizations and provided a model for national duplication along with motivating countless numbers of people to help solve community problems. She never seems to forget that she must act where she is to make a difference, and she always sees that there is more to be done by becoming involved at the state and national level.

Whitney has a wonderful spirit that engages people, along with a determined attitude and an intense desire for change. She is a senior at Antonian College Preparatory High School and carries a 3.26 grade point average. She first volunteered at three while painting a home for a family in Phoenix, Arizona. While in elementary and middle school, she read to children, checked in guests at SAMM Shelter for homeless, was recorder at two National Blind Chess Championships, assisted at Treasures Benefit for the Lighthouse for the Blind and organized various food drives. While in high school, she averages 60 hours per month of volunteer service. Some of the programs she has participated in are the OYE National Senior Citizens Event, Advanced Training Academy, Martin Luther King March and Service Day, Organ and Tissue Awareness Program, Bulk Mail for Children’s Congress, KABB Kid’s Fair, Antonian Leadership Conference and You Are Important to Me Because.

She conceived and organized the first Antonian Leadership Conference, was the 1999 NBA Team-Up Award winner, 2000 Semi-Finalist NBA Team-Up Award, 1998 Youth Imagineer of the Year and she received the Prudential Community Spirit Distinguished Service Award (out of 20,000 nominees). Whitney believes what she is doing now is only the beginning and she is confident to mature into a strong woman who will continue to make a difference wherever she is.