Malia Mitchell, a Palisades Charter High School junior, was awarded the 2019 fall semester inaugural Entrepreneur Award by the Pacific Palisades Rotary Club.
The bi-annual award was established by Rotary to honor and to recognize the more than 100 PaliHi students who have part-time jobs after school or who work on weekends.
Mitchell, who works part-time at South Bay Spartans, received a certificate and a check for $500 at a Rotary Club breakfast held at Aldersgate on February 20.
Based in Los Angeles, the South Bay Spartans program focuses on skill building, team building and creating well-rounded scholar-athletes from ages 5 to 14. Mitchell serves as a videographer, who sets up, films and takes down the equipment for the nonprofit.
“I enjoy reading, science and dancing,” Mitchell told the Rotarians. “My favorite class at Pali this year is AP computer principles.”
After graduating this June, Mitchell plans to attend a four-year university. “I’d like to attend either Howard, Tuskeegee, UCLA, Berkeley, or Hampton,” she said. “I want to double major in computer science and either aerospace engineering or mechanical engineering.”
All students with part-time jobs were eligible to apply for the award after submitting an application that included an employer’s work performance evaluation. Other criteria included working 40 hours during the fall semester and answering questions such as “Describe the one thing that could be done at the company to improve the product or service.”
Applications were reviewed by Rotary’s Vocational Service committee: Chairperson Perry Akins, Hagop Tchakerian and Trish Bowe and PaliHi’s Simon Santana.
In presenting and noting the importance of the award Akins noted, “When I was in high school everyone worked after school, but that is no longer the case.”
The committee received 32 applications for the fall semester and is now considering applications for the spring semester.
Attending the breakfast with Mitchell was her mom Loretta Brown and dad Shaheed Mitchell.
If you would like more information about Palisades Rotary Club, contact Trish Bowe (trish.bowe.b8cy@statefarm.com).
Malia was very deserving recipient. The Rotary Vocational Service Committee has begun the process of selecting the Pali Hi Entrepreneur Award recipient for the spring semester. If the quality of applicants is anything like the fall semester’s applicants, the challenge to the committee will be a tough one.
Congratulations to Malia. Well deserved indeed!