CHAMPAIGN — Centennial High School senior Nailah Mansury will be heading to Washington, D.C., this summer.
The trip won’t be for sight-seeing. She will receive a Congressional Award Gold Medal.
Mansury took on the challenge and met the requirements for the prestigious award established by Congress in 1979 to recognize initiative, service and achievement in young people.
The award is the highest one for youth. Mansury will be the first recipient from Champaign.
The requirements to receive the award are rigorous.
Mansury, 17, said she learned of the award from a cousin who lives in Kansas City.
“It’s part of their curriculum,” Mansury said. “You have to do 400 volunteer public-service hours, 200 personal-development hours, 200 physical-fitness hours and a five-day, four-night expedition.”
Mansury traveled to Amman, Jordan, and did a cultural, exploratory expedition.
“I met a lot of great people,” she said. “I also wanted to learn more about the Islamic footprint in Jordan.”
Among her stops were two historic sites — The Cave of the Seven Sleepers and Petra.
The Cave of the Seven Sleepers is mentioned in both Christian and Islamic history.
The ancient city of Petra, also in Jordan, was the center of an Arab kingdom in Hellenistic and Roman times.
“Petra was really beautiful,” Mansury said. “I also got to meet a lot of people that worked there and host tours there. They’re very kind and genuine and down-to-earth people.”
For her physical education requirements, she took weekly walks of an hour to an hour and a half with a friend, “trying to create a routine.”
Mansury gave of her time to tutor for Spanish Honor Society “and outside of school” for elementary students.
She said she has always been active in school. A member of the National Art Honor Society, she enjoys working with pottery.
Mansury said she’d like to follow in her mother’s footsteps and be a dentist.
She gave credit to her advisers for each section, including art teacher Tara Starling, volunteer advisers Eric Springer and Joshua Doniek, expedition adviser Hibaa Thayyil and personal development adviser Alexander Wolfram. With Springer's help, she start a Future Business Leaders of America club at Centennial.
Starling and Centennial Principal Sara Sanders are big fans of Mansury.
Said Starling: “She’s wonderful. Nailah has taken ceramic classes like beyond what we offer. She’s a master ceramist for a high-schooler. She is my (teacher’s aide)” and helps students on new projects.
“She reclaims clay for me, which is a big job. She’s ... very active in the art department.”
Starling said Mansury has applied for a position as a studio assistant at Parkland College in the ceramics lab.
Mansury is a vice president of the school’s National Art Honor Society.
Sanders said Mansury “goes above and beyond in every class.”
“She likes to learn. She’s very humble. It was hard for me to get her to realize how big of a deal this is.
“She just did this because she was inspired by her cousin.”
The program is open to all U.S. youth between the ages of 14 and 24, regardless of ability, circumstance or socioeconomic status.
Participants earn bronze, silver and gold certificates or bronze, silver and gold medals.
Each level involves setting goals in four program areas that emphasize personal development, community service and physical fitness.
The award is a public-private partnership that receives all private-sector funding.
Mansury began planning to complete the program requirements during her freshman year and was able to finish and submit her application at the end of last year.
Mansury’s parents are Dr. Nusrat Hawa and Dr. Nasiruddin Mansury.