20A Federation Star January 2014
FOCUS ON YOUTH
Rising young star: Victoria Meyer By Jean L. Amodea
H
aving already accomplished more than others her age at 17, Victoria Meyer is primed for academic success. The local high school senior stands apart from her peers as she is sailing through her last year taking classes at Florida Gulf Coast University. After attending Seacrest Country Day School for three years, Meyer enrolled in Gulf Coast High School as a senior. However, due to her high academic standing, she applied for and was accepted into the Accelerated Collegiate Experience (ACE) program at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). Offered through the Florida public school system, the early college admission program allows qualified students to pursue advanced studies while completing requirements for
their high school diploma. However, Meyer will still attend graduation services with her high school class in the spring of 2014. “With the ACE program, I can get into my subjects more rigorously and with more passion. Through my current humanities course, I will have completed reading 50 literary classics from Homer’s Iliad to the Torah, New Testament and even the Koran,” said Meyer. Other activities at FGCU afford Meyer the opportunity to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) classes through the Students for Community Literacy student organization. “I love teaching. Through this program, we teach the FGCU custodial staff and hope to expand the program to involve the public. Since I am passionate about the Spanish language, and have studied in Spain last summer as part of an immersion program, it is a way for me to keep up my language skills and help others,” said Meyer. An accomplished varsity athlete during her freshman to junior years at Seacrest, Meyer excelled in cross country, track and field, and basketball. Victoria Meyer (at right) and friend Aly Hirschhorn at La Caleta, a beach in Cadiz, Spain, where Meyer studied last summer “I enjoy the camara-
derie of team sports and have learned so much about what it means to be a team player both on and off the field,” she said. Meyer is still actively involved in fitness and works out at CrossFit gym where she does intensive circuit training that she said requires focus. While mentally and physically demanding, Meyer enjoys the challenge and being around likeminded fitness enthusiasts and the culture of sports. Meyer attends High Holy Day services at Temple Shalom with her family that includes one sibling, 19-year-old AJ, who attends Notre Dame. Vice president of the BBYO BBG last year, Meyer is the current president of BBG (girls’ chapter), and is involved with creating leadership opportunities for others as well as projects such as an adoption of a family for Chanukah with fundraising activities. “For me, being Jewish means being a part of a community of people who share values. I have been blessed to not have experienced any adversity in my life, so far, and I am so fortunate to be surrounded by supportive parents and grandparents,” Meyer said. As for her future, career choices,
Victoria Meyer mugs for a photo with her father Eric and brother AJ
and advice for others her age, Meyer has sound counsel. “This is a very exciting time in my life and I have so much more to learn before I can settle on a possible career choice. I will wait and see in which direction I should go. The best advice I could give to others is to pursue whatever it is you are passionate about and to just ‘bring it’ every day,” she added. Jean Amodea, a former school principal from New Jersey is a freelance writer for the Naples Daily News and its community publications as well as director of Peter Duchin Music of Naples/Entertainment Direct. She also performs with her husband Ron’s dance band, jazz ensemble and Caribbean quartet. Reach Jean at jeanamodea@earthlink.net.
Want to see your “Rising young star” featured in the Federation Star? Send an email to jeanamodea@earthlink.net with the details.
More Naples Jewish teens get the chance to be involved in BBYO
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rue to its mission of involving more Jewish teens in more meaningful Jewish experiences, BBYO, the world’s leading pluralistic Jewish youth organization, is increasing its membership in Naples. BBYO North Florida Region’s programming is teen-led and designed to reflect the interests of the teens involved. Diverse chapter and regional school-year programs and summer experiences at camp, on campus and around the world offer teens ways to meet peers, explore new ideas, connect with their Jewish heritage, and learn about Israel. An upcoming BBYO convention on January 31 welcomes teens in 8th through 12th grade to meet new friends across Central Florida, engage in teen-led programming, sing with Jewish song leader Eric Hunker, and spend a weekend away at a camp in Central Florida. Busing is provided for Naples teens. For more information, please contact Lory Conte at LConte@bbyo.org.
This exciting convention and new programming brings revitalized energy to the region and the surrounding Jewish community. “This is an exciting time for the Jewish community of Naples,” said
participate in community service as well as fun, social and Jewish enrichment programming. Currently over 30 teens participate in Naples BBYO Connect, and the program has grown by 17% across North America in the past year. A d d i t i o n a l l y, Naples BBYO benefits from BBYO’s Friends and Alumni Network (FAN), a localized program for parents, alumni and friends to connect and support the community’s local Joel Zishuk, Zoe Van Slyke and Tamara Zishuk attended BBYO’s Regional Kallah convention, program. November 8-10 at Cedarkirk Camp near Tampa For more information about BBYO North Florida Skylar Haas, Naples BBYO Program Associate. “Our growth means that Region, please contact Lory Conte, even more teens will benefit from the Program Director, at 407.621.4032 or LConte@bbyo.org. BBYO experience by finding a place About BBYO to be themselves, fit in and shine.” BBYO is the leading pluralistic BBYO Connect, BBYO’s program for students in grades 6-8 in Jewish teen movement aspiring to Naples, offers a fun and safe enviinvolve more Jewish teens in more ronment to form new friendships and meaningful Jewish experiences. For
90 years, BBYO‘s leadership programs, the Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA, high school fraternity) and the B’nai B’rith Girls (BBG, high school sorority), have been providing exceptional leadership programs and identity enrichment experiences, shaping the confidence and character of more than 400,000 alumni who are among the most prominent figures in business, politics, academia, the arts and Jewish communal life. Now, BBYO’s network of Jewish teens, alumni, parents, volunteers and philanthropists serves as the Jewish community’s most valuable platform for delivering to the post-Bar/Bat Mitzvah audience fun, meaningful and affordable experiences. With year-round activities in hundreds of local communities and inspiring world-wide travel experiences, BBYO’s broad program menu enables teens to explore areas of leadership, service, civic engagement, Israel education and Jewish values. For more information on BBYO, please visit www.bbyo.org.
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