It’s been only six weeks since Faustina Barcena became a first-year student at the University of Notre Dame, but she’s already drawing on her background as a community volunteer to support projects at the Indiana school.
“In the last three weeks, I’ve been working with the Right to Life club and some of the medical service clubs,” said the Peachtree Corners native. “I was involved in sports medicine during high school at Notre Dame Academy in Duluth, and a lot of the need to serve and care for other people come from that.”
Before heading off to college, Barcena was honored for her community leadership and volunteerism by Norfolk Southern’s Thoroughbred Scholars Program that awarded her a $40,000 scholarship. The honor noted the extensive work the 18-year-old devoted to a Girl Scouts project that began in 2020 and didn’t finish until last year.
The concept started when Barcena contacted Annandale Village, an assisted living center in Suwanee, about ways she could volunteer. The unusual need the facility had was to turn pews in an about-to-be-razed chapel into benches for the grounds.
“I needed to tie the project to a global issue, and I went with mental health,” said Barcena. “But they had these pews that were going to be burned or put in compost, so it turned into a project that was ongoing and sustainable as well.”
The first step was to organize a crew to help with the work. A family friend pitched in with planning out materials and costs, and offering tips on how to cut and rebuild the pews into benches. Then she recruited a dozen assistants, including her two brothers, to sand and stain the wood. She also designed a website that links to mental health resources and showcases the finished products: six colorfully decorated benches that dot the village’s nature trail.
“They’re painted with nice aesthetic scenes as well info about the informational website,” said Barcena. “In all, the project totaled about 95 hours.”
The $40,000 scholarship from Norfolk Southern was one of three the company awarded this year. Another 100 scholarships of up to $10,000 were given out, including one to Barcena’s twin brother, John. Since launching in 2022, the Thoroughbred program has awarded more than $1.4 million in scholarships to employees’ children.
Barcena’s prize is going toward her studies in neuroscience and behavior, a degree she hopes to use as a physical therapist in the Army and later with an orthopedic practice.
DOING GOOD
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