Club News & Events

Youth of the Year 2012

3/20/2012 7:18:11 PM

Congratulations to the 2012 Youth of the Year - Marsha Walls!

Marsha Walls has been a member of Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club – Sportsman’s Park Unit for the past three years.  A senior at Gateway Institute of Technology, Marsha is a successful student with a current GPA of 3.0. She is involved in a variety of extracurricular activities including, Future Business Leaders of America, Student Government and Junior Reserves Officers Training Corps (JROTC).

Marsha’s experiences at the Club have provided her with opportunities to discover more about the young woman she is, while developing her into a leader among her peers. She often refers to the Club as a place where she and her peers can escape from all the negative challenges that face them daily.  Marsha first attended the Club through the St. Louis Internship Program in 2010 and was hired as a paid assistant program staff with the Club’s Healthy Habit’s Program. The following fall, she joined the Junior Staff Career Development Program to enhance her job readiness skills. Marsha’s respect for others, positive work ethics and diligence to details, earned her a part-time position in the Club’s Learning Center.  She really enjoys working with younger members on homework assignments, because it is rewarding to watch them get excited when they finally understand the lesson.

After graduating from high school in May 2012, Marsha will attend Southeast Missouri State University in the fall of 2012. Although she had been accepted to several colleges, she chose to attend SEMO in Cape Girardeau, where she will pursue a B.A. in Education with an emphasis on middle school education. Having the opportunity to make an impact on a child’s academic success is important to her because so many people have reached out to impact her educational success. Marsha says, “The Club has offered me new avenues for exploring and doors to open into a successful future.”