My name is Micaela Tomaro and I am one of iACT’s interns this year! I am 17 years old and a rising senior at Mira Costa High School. I first became involved with iACT through my younger brother’s soccer team. His previous coach, Mark Hodson – the current Men’s Darfur Coach- would allow his boys to write letters to the refugees. From that point on I became very intrigued with iACT’s work and wondered how I could get involved.
For the past couple of years, I have been fortunate enough to volunteer for iACT’s annual event, One Strong Kick. By the end of my first night volunteering, I knew I wanted to engage other students and members of my community with the organization. My Co-Presidents, Amalia Lohuis and Julia Nuttall-Smith and I started a club on campus called Mustangs4Change and we have been working for the past two years to create advocates within our school. In addition, I have been working with iACT to complete my Girl Scout Gold Award. My mentor, Katie-Jay Scott, has helped me throughout this process and I will hopefully be completing my award by the end of this summer.
Beyond iACT, you will most likely find me in the classroom or on the soccer and lacrosse fields. I am heavily involved with academics, extracurriculars such as Girl Scouts, NCL, AYSO Coach/Mentor and Model United Nations, and sports like high school lacrosse and soccer as well as club soccer. Although my schedule is busy, I am very passionate about all of the activities I’m involved in.
I have a profound interest in the medical field and international relations and I hope to manifest this passion into my intern project this summer. Through Model United Nations, I am able to debate topics of similar crisis. Some of my projects and goals as an intern for the summer are to create a comprehensive and easily accessible Health and Wellness Packet, and to research existing health and wellness programs for iACT to model and modify for the camps.
I love the work that iACT is putting forth towards helping the refugees and creating a world wide understanding of their current situation. I am very proud to be a part of this organization and I hope that my work for iACT will have an impact on others within and beyond my community.