Caring for the environment is an issue close to the heart of Aziza Kennedy, a member of the class of 2026 at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C.
This fall, she will attend Georgia Tech, where she hopes to study civil engineering and perhaps minor in the Sustainable Cities program there. That program examines ways to create sustainable, environmentally friendly communities in urban areas.
“I’ve grown up in an urban area, so it’s close to my heart,” said Kennedy, an 18-year-old resident of Alexandria, Virginia, who is interested in becoming an environmental engineer.
The daughter of Christine and Adam Kennedy is an Orthodox Christian who has served as a peer minister at the coed Catholic high school sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers. In that role, she helped lead retreats and student discussions, which she said helped her grow in her faith.
A freshman religion class project on creating a plan to help or impact the community inspired her to develop a composting program that the school adopted in her junior year. Now food scraps from the school’s kitchen and food waste from the cafeteria is collected and transported to a composting facility.
“The reason it’s important to me is food waste is a major contributor to global warming through greenhouse gas emissions,” Kennedy said, adding that it is a way for the school community to reduce its carbon footprint and care for the environment.
Kennedy served as the president of the Eco Club at St. John’s. As a participant in the De La Salle Scholars Program that provides opportunities for St. John’s highest achieving students to pursue intellectual pursuits outside the classroom, her senior project dealt with maintaining the St. John’s Compost Initiative for the future, and she found student leaders to keep the program going.
At St. John’s, Kennedy also played on the varsity tennis team, and she participated in the Robotics Club, where she was mentored by a physicist from the National Institute of Standards and Technology who encouraged her to pursue a career in engineering.
She also served as the vice president of the Mind Over Matter Club at St. John’s, joining other students in visiting a senior living facility in Maryland and helping residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease do jigsaw puzzles.
“It’s very meaningful to me, because a core value of mine is to respect the dignity of all people, no matter their age or circumstance,” Kennedy said, noting how a resident told her how much they appreciated the students visiting them. “It meant a lot to me that we could bring joy to people,” she said.
As her June 5 graduation from St. John’s College High School approached, Kennedy said, “I’m really excited. I’ve had a very good time at St. John’s. I just feel like I’ve received a lot of love from the community. The teachers have been very supportive. I have really great friends, so I feel really grateful. I’m also so excited for college and to go to that next step.”
A key goal as she goes on to college, she said, will be keeping in touch with her friends “and continuing to grow in my relationship with God.”
