Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Eduardo T Otero | 210504-N-KH151-0002 NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (May 12, 2021) - Sarah Chambers, a...... read more read more
Sarah Chambers, a junior at Rota David Glasgow Farragut (DGF) High School, was recognized as Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota Military Youth of the Year by NAVSTA Rota Commanding Officer Capt. David Baird, May 4, 2021. The Military Youth of the Year award recognizes outstanding teens at Boys & Girls Club of America affiliated youth centers on U.S. military installations around the world.
“It was a pleasure and an honor to have Sarah Chambers represent NAVSTA Rota in this year's MYOY (Military Year of the Year) competition,” said Cathy Knapp, Rota youth director with Child & Youth Program (CYP) oversight. “She was a strong competitor who displayed a great deal of poise, confidence and determination throughout the process. Sarah represented us exceptionally well and CYP Rota is proud of all her achievements.”
Chambers desire to work for the community and advocate for others is what led her to apply for the competition.
“By being the representative for my community I am able to show the great opportunities that Rota, along with the military lifestyle of a child, has to offer,” explained Chambers. “I felt greatly honored when I learned I would be able to represent my community.”
This isn’t the first time Chambers has represented Rota to a larger audience. She was selected as an interviewer for the virtual Blue Angels panel last year. She is also an active participant in Model United Nations and Creative Connections.
After her selection as Rota’s Military Youth of the Year, Chambers continued on to compete against fourteen teens from the European region for the title of Europe’s Military Youth of the Year. The teens were judged on their essays, interview with judges, speech, and overall application.
She viewed the process as an opportunity to grow. A lesson she learned from her sports coaches but she applies to all aspects of her life.
“One of the most rewarding lessons I learned was that failure is the best form of learning,” she explained. “When you fail, you can grow as a person. This is how I confidently took on the youth of the year competition. By not caring about the outcome and welcoming failure, I was able to learn so many valuable life skills from the YOY competition.”
While she was not selected to represent Europe, Chambers pulled on her outgoing personality, her desire to advocate for her community, and her ability to reframe challenges as learning opportunities.
Chambers still has her senior year ahead of her and she is already setting her sights on the future. After graduation, she hopes to attend college in the States and obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Looking back on her time in Rota, she has learned to appreciate all of the influences that fed her passion to improve herself and her community.
“Like all the other bases I have lived at, for the most part, the people make the base,” she said. “The friends and peers I have had the opportunity of meeting has made my time in Rota amazing. Being able to create memories with my close friends has enabled me to grow and create bonds that are unique to the military lifestyle.”
| Date Taken: | 05.20.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2021 02:33 |
| Story ID: | 397163 |
| Location: | ES |
| Web Views: | 144 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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