Franklin High Senior Receives Governor’s Volunteer Star Award

franklin high student receives governor's volunteer award

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A Franklin High School senior is being honored as one of the top volunteers in Tennessee.

FHS senior Diana Pope was recently named a recipient of the Governor’s Volunteer Stars Award for her contribution to the Williamson County community.

The Governor’s Volunteer Stars Awards (GVSA) is an initiative that seeks to recognize outstanding volunteers from each of Tennessee’s 95 counties. Participating counties conduct a call for nominations and recognize one outstanding youth and one outstanding adult volunteer.

“I am so grateful that my passion for community service was able to be recognized by the state, as I wanted to make my senior year not just about succeeding in school but helping others as well,” said Diana.

Those named a 2015 Governor’s Volunteer Star gathered in Franklin on February 28 to honor and celebrate volunteerism in Tennessee. The event was a formal banquet held at the Franklin Marriott in Cool Springs, where volunteers were able to meet state representatives, town mayors and Miss Tennessee, who handed out awards.

Diana has always had a passion for volunteering and helping others, but after attending Volunteer Girls State leadership training camp for juniors in 2015, she began to actively search for opportunities that would allow her to help her community. During that time, she was also nominated to serve as one of the presidents for the Franklin High School’s Youth Advisory Council for United Way.

“I was inspired to be a servant leader during the training camp,” said Diana. “I have always loved helping my peers in my school, but I wanted to extend that compassion outside of high school and be a leader on the United Way Youth Advisory Council for Williamson County.”

Diana says her new passion is reading books to a group of disabled adults.

“The ladies at book club always brighten my day, especially when I’m having a stressful week at school,” said Diana. “I initially came to help decorate collages with these disabled adults, but I starting coming every week because I always love seeing these sweet people.”

Outside of volunteering, Diana is an active member of the debate and mock trial team at Franklin High. In college, she plans to study political science and continue to do volunteer work.

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