Each year the Junior Achievement of Arizona Group selects 18 students throughout all of Arizona to recognize them for the positive impact they have had locally and globally as well as for their exceptional intelligence and talent. Hannah Mason who is President of the Interact Club sponsored by Mesa West at Westwood High School in Mesa was one of the 18 students selected to be honored this year.Service projects are often rewarding, but it’s not common to see a project reach its intended target in person. Hannah Mason took her service project and followed it all the way to Africa, seeing the benefit of all that good work.
When Hannah Mason began volunteering for Interact, she knew she could do positive work. But it wasn’t until she took a 17-day trip to Africa that she got to see firsthand the effect that all that work would have on a needy population.
Mason, a senior at Westwood High School, volunteers for Interact, the youth division of the Rotary Club. Taking the club’s mission of “service above self” to heart, Mason set out to visit Rotary clubs to collect donations for Interact’s annual project of donating mobility devices.
“I love fundraising,” Mason said. “I’m a total weirdo on that. We got to go to a bunch of different Rotary clubs. I did a presentation about the project and past trips that had happened. I presented at a statewide Rotary conference, too.”
Mason kept on fundraising and organizing, and in the end raised $26,000. She was one of six high school students chosen to travel to Africa, where they distributed walkers, wheelchairs, braces, crutches and other mobility devices.
“It was quite literally a life changing experience,” Mason said. “I knew that I wanted to go into something related to public service when I went. But it made me realize I had a passion for service.”
Mason also has a hint to share with other students: Having that focus on a goal and putting all that energy into giving back actually improved her performance in school.
“Before Interact, my grades were good but not amazing,” Mason said. “I didn’t have any drive in myself. But as soon as I found that, I realized what I wanted to do with my life and what I needed to do to get there.”