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Alyssa Carmen Vargas and Janie Qing (Provided by Bank of America) -
YORKTOWN — Recent Tabb High School graduates and Yorktown residents Alyssa Carmen Vargas and Janie Qing have been named Bank of America Student Leaders for 2024.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Student Leaders program annually connects 300 community-minded high school juniors and seniors from nearly 100 communities to employment, skills development and service through a paid summer internship.
The students will work closely with the Mariners’ Museum to gain practical work and life experience, assisting with program management, fundraising, and multimedia production. Bank of America believes that partnerships with local nonprofits such as the Mariners’ Museum enable Student Leaders to network, share their diverse stories, and gain new perspectives on community issues.
In addition to the eight-week paid internship, the students participate in a national leadership summit in Washington to see how nonprofits, governments, and businesses collaborate to meet local needs and receive financial education throughout the program. They also network with other honored Student Leaders from across the United States.
Vargas is from a military family with a diverse range of skills and interests, according to Bank of America. She is passionate about increasing female participation in STEM fields, so she co-founded Girls Who Code (now renamed ROOTS for STEM), a club centered around teaching coding to women of all ages around her community. She is also the President and Founder of the Research Club at her school, promoting proper research practices among students.
Bank of America added Vargas is actively involved in the International Language Club and dedicates her free time to teaching English to non-native speakers, which is personally significant as English is her second language. Vargas will attend Yale University next year where she will major in Data Science and Economics.
“I’d say my favorite department to work with was the education department,” said Vargas. “Here at the Mariner’s Museum, they have a lot of children and students coming in that they help hold programs for. One of them is Wonder Wednesdays, and these little kids come in and we read them a book and sing songs and they do an activity. It’s been my first time interacting with children that young, and it’s really fun and an interesting experience to work with kids from different age groups that I had never had the opportunity to work with before.”
According to Bank of America, Qing is a Student Leader with many academic and extracurricular accomplishments. Like Vargas, Qing is a co-founder of ROOTS for STEM club, advocating for women in STEM fields and coding. As a healthcare advocate, Qing participated in a six-week Biotech engineering research program at Duke University Hospital, where she was the youngest participant in the room. Qing will attend Duke University in the fall and is proud of her contributions to research there.
Qing is also volunteers at Riverside Hospital, Bank of America said. Her achievements extend beyond STEM; she serves as Class Treasurer on the Student Council, participates in the Mandarin/Chinese Club to celebrate her heritage, and is fluent in Mandarin. Qing also holds the position of Student President at the Peninsula Chinese-American Association and serves as Vice Chairman for York County Youth Commission Events.
“Before [the program], I didn’t really have a good idea of the different kinds of careers or all of the other things that companies have,” said Vargas. “This has given me the chance to explore so many different interests and find out what works for me and what kind of workplace environment I like.”
The national summit with the internship at the Mariners’ Museum makes the Student Leaders program a one-of-a-kind, invaluable experience, according to the institution.
“Our purpose behind why we do this is, is to help students not just be leaders today but to develop those leadership skills that will take them to the leadership levels that we need to help continue growing as a country and as a community,” said Hans VonKruger the Senior Vice President Market Executive at Bank of America.
For more information about the Bank of America Student Leadership Program or the Mariners Museum, visit their official web pages.
