Miriam Ross-Hirsch selected as one of Tomorrow25 leaders

Warwick — Miriam Ross-Hirsch, a junior at Warwick Valley High School, just completed a once-in-a lifetime experience. Ross-Hirsch was selected from over 500 nominees in Bentley College’s Tomorrow25 leadership competition. She and the other 24 winners attended the Bentley Leadership Forum to accept their awards. The forum was titled “The Global Imperative to Serve the Public Good.” For the past three years, Bentley College, in cooperation with Time Magazine, searches for 25 high school juniors worldwide who they name tomorrow’s leaders, the Tomorrow25. Each student must demonstrate initiative, citizenship, intelligence, technological savvy, cultural awareness, social responsibility, a passion for people and organizations and a commitment to making positive things happen in their communities. Ross-Hirsch was nominated by her ninth-grade English teacher, Stephanie Aro. She met the criteria of the competition by participating in many activities: Ross-Hirsch is a mentor in the Student Leadership Institute at Warwick Middle School, which encourage middle school students to learn leadership skills. She is a primary officer in the high school’s Make-a-Wish Foundation chapter, a volunteer with the Urban Mitzvah Corps at Rutgers University, working with the homeless, the poor, and the elderly, and the chairperson and board member/vice president for the northern region of the North American Federation of Temple Youth. She created a two-hour interactive workshop called “The Power of Our Words—What We Say Matters.” In addition, this Warwick native traveled to Washington, D.C., and lobbied on Capitol Hill advocating for the homeless. After all of that, she is also a high honor roll student at the high school as well as a member of the National Honor Society. The Bentley Leadership Forum featured some pretty high-powered speakers that all of the Tomorrow25 had the opportunity to meet and listen to. Patty Stonesifer, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, director of Women and Public Policy at Harvard University, Ambassador Charles R. Stith, director of the African Presidential Research Center at Boston University, and Michael Brown, co-founder and CEO of City Year all shared their thoughts with the group. “I felt humbled and honored to spend two days with 24 awesome and new friends,” she said. The Tomorrow25 group is featured in an ad in the April 28 issue of Time magazine.