Senior Andrew Vignolo was awarded the Male Youth Leader of the Year this past March at the Global Leadership Connection Conference that was held at Westmont College.
Andrew, along with fellow Santa Barbara award winners, Bela Lafferty of Dos Pueblos High School, Anastasia Kunz of San Marcos High School and Brock Dickey of Santa Ynez High School, received an all-expense paid trip to the GLC Leadership Experience in Washington, D.C. that took place from Oct. 25 to Oct. 29.
The trip was chaperoned by GLC Executive Director and founder, Carole Harder and her niece, Kim Johnson.
Twenty students from Los Angeles; San Diego; St. Louis, Missouri; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Atlanta, Georgia and Topeka, Kansas were also invited to attend the Leadership Experience.
On the first day, the group took tours of the Eisenhower Building, the White House, the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Natural History.
The following day, the students saw the Arlington National Cemetery, Georgetown University, where they were able to meet with a former GLC award-winner Daria Etezadi ’13. The group toured the monuments later that night.
On the third day, they were able to see Union Station, take a tour of the US Capitol Building, where they saw both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
On their final day, the students got to take a tour of the Pentagon. “It was one big sight seeing adventure,” Andrew Vignolo said.
Although the students mostly went on tours throughout the nation’s capital, one morning they also attended a lecture at a corporation called Shared Hope International, which focuses on raising awareness and bringing and end to sex trafficking on a global level, including in the United States, founded by Linda Smith, a friend of Carole Harder.
“It was cool because all of the tour guides we had, Carole somehow knew,” Andrew said.
The students were able to tour nearly every monument and political building in Washington D.C., along with meeting Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“Although the trip was absolutely astounding, the best part for me was making the connections with all the people that I met on the trip, including our tour guides, because that is essentially what the GLC program is all about: making connections that I will maintain for a very very long time.”
“The experience was truly amazing. I loved every second of it and met some awesome people while touring our nation’s capital. Carole and Kim were both awesome chaperones and made the trip even better than I hoped it to be. I can’t wait to go back to the conference this year and see who might become next year’s recipients.”
Students saw the Arlington National Cemetery, Georgetown University, where they were able to meet with a former GLC award-winner Daria Etezadi ’13.
The group toured the monuments later that night.
On the third day, they were able to see Union Station and take a tour of the US Capitol Building, where they saw both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
On their final day, the students got to take a tour of the Pentagon. “It was one big sightseeing adventure,” Andrew Vignolo said.
Although the students mostly went on tours throughout the nation’s capital, one morning they also attended a lecture at a corporation called Shared Hope International.
This organization focuses on raising awareness and bringing and end to sex trafficking on a global level, including in the United States, founded by Linda Smith, a friend of Carole Harder.
“It was cool because all of the tour guides we had, Carole somehow knew,” Andrew said.
The students were able to tour nearly every monument and political building in Washington D.C., along with meeting Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“Although the trip was absolutely astounding, the best part for me was making the connections with all the people that I met on the trip, including our tour guides, because that is essentially what the GLC program is all about: making connections that I will maintain for a very very long time.”
Eleven Laguna juniors participated in the first Global Leadership Connection seminar held in Santa Barbara at UCSB in 2009.
At that conference, Austin Patrick was awarded Male Youth Leader of the Year and the McNult Family Scholarship Award.
He received a $1,000 scholarship and won an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C.
At the 2011 GLC conference, Kai Gamble took the Male Youth Leader of the Year Award along with the scholarship and trip to Washington, D.C.
In 2012, Daria Etezadi was selected as the Female Youth Leader of the Year along with the scholarship and trip to Washington, D.C..
“The experience was truly amazing. I loved every second of it and met some awesome people while touring our nation’s capitol.
Carole and Kim were both awesome chaperones and made the trip even better than I hoped it to be. I can’t wait to go back to the conference this year and see who might become next year’s recipients,” Andrew said.