Benites is a student leader

Knight High School graduate Susan Benites is one of five Los Angeles high school juniors and seniors selected for Bank of America’s Student Leaders program.

The Los Angeles Student Leaders will engage in an eight-week paid internship and participate in programming that includes a collaborative, mentor-focused project working closely with their respective nonprofits.

Benites applied for the program after learning about it from her high school counselor.

“I realized it was an extraordinary opportunity to continue to help my community during the summer before college,” she said. “And the program aligned greatly with my values as an opportunity to serve, inspire and change through training with a local nonprofit.”

Benites was excited when she learned she had been accepted to the program.

“I was so happy when I realized I was going to be able to intern with a nonprofit and just meet a lot of amazing students in the process,” she said.

For the second consecutive year, the program is virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Benites has been working with the nonprofit Archdiocesan Youth Employment Services, or AYE, for the past month. The nonprofit, part of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc. provides more than 2,000 less-privileged youth with job training, educational and career services each year, according to a description.

“With AYE, I’ve been able to lead workshops daily that cover important skills,” Benites said. “We teach young students, disadvantaged youth, how to build a resume, other professional skills and that’s one of my main jobs in the nonprofit I work with.”

She also works with parents to educate them about the program so they can enroll their children. Benites graduated at the top of her class of 680 students at Knight High School with a 5.24 GPA. She will attend Stanford University in the fall.

“It was one of my dream schools and throughout high school one of the reasons why I was so motivated to work hard,” she said. “I’m so thrilled, like, when I got accepted I was so thrilled and I just feel so fortunate to be attending such an amazing university.”

Her parents are both English language learners.

Her mother emigrated from Mexico and her father from Peru.

“My mom emigrated at a younger age so picking up the language was a lot easier for her than it was my father,” Benites said. “But it was definitely a struggle that both of them faced.” That is one of the reasons Benites became interested in helping young students learn how to read. She volunteered at Barrel Springs Elementary School helping English language learners in first and second grade.

“This has been my favorite volunteer opportunity so far as I am passionate about spreading educational equity through working to give English language learners extra support,” she said. “This is also an issue that is very personal to me as I already stated since my parents are both English language learners and I strive to help people like them. My mom emigrated at a younger age so picking up the language was a lot easier for her than it was my father. But it was definitely a struggle that both of them faced.”

Benites hopes to connect with a tutoring program at Stanford to continue her volunteerism and help young students.

As part of this summer’s program, the Bank of America Student Leaders will also take part in a virtual Summit in partnership with the Close-Up Foundation to participate in Stanford University’s Young Democracy at Home program, which encourages conversation about current issues facing young people today.