Riana Grewal,16, is about to start her senior year at Santa Clara High School. One of Grewal’s summer highlights was receiving this year’s Sister Cities International Youth Leadership Award.
Grewal received her award and a scholarship prize on Aug. 3 at the Sister Cities International Youth Leadership Summit in Denver, Colorado where attendees learned about international relations.
“I’m grateful for the entire board of the Santa Clara Sister Cities Association (SCSCA), for the nomination by Raj Chahal (former SCSCA President) and for the support of Patricia Knowles (Vice President of the SCSCA Youth Commission).” Grewal said. “I’m sure all the other nominees were great candidates.
“I think what made me stand out is that I came into this club so passionate about it,” continued Grewal. “When I first joined the SCSCA Youth Commission, there weren’t that many members. I brought more awareness to the organization by starting a school club at Santa Clara High School and I created a social media page. As soon as I did that, the students interested in this Youth Commission increased. Currently, we have about 50 members… We have many events throughout the year and we bring awareness about student exchanges and trips. We give students opportunities to fundraise and plan for exchange trips.”
No stranger to traveling abroad, Grewal visited Izumo, Japan in June 2015 and Coimbra, Portugal in February 2016 through the SCSCA. Perhaps someday, Grewal will also visit Limerick, Ireland, the newest sister city of the SCSCA.
“We just opened up Limerick, Ireland,” Grewal said. “Now students with the Youth Commission can travel to Limerick. My future goal is to bring more awareness to the club and to expand it. My other goal is to be more involved in the community. One of my goals is to bring inspirational leaders in Santa Clara to meetings. It’s another way to learn about people’s cultures and backgrounds. It’s another way to see cultures in our own community.”