Angel will receive up to $2,500 in seed funding for a project to create change in her community. The teenager was surprised by the announcement today, made during a school assembly, where her high school peers, school staff, State Representative Mia Gregerson, and Sidekick Collective volunteers celebrated her.

The Sidekick Collective Board of Directors and volunteers will support and mentor Angel as she designs and implements her Cosmic Hero project.

“We are thrilled to have a Highline student receive the Cosmic Hero award,” said Highline Superintendent Public Schools Susan Enfield. “Angel’s commitment to serving children in our community sets an example for all of us. She truly is a superhero. We are so proud of Angel and grateful to the Sidekick Collective for recognizing her work.

Angel exemplifies empathy, dedication, and community-mindedness in action, and is a role model for students and adults alike. All Mt. Rainier High School students select a personal project to complete during their freshman and sophomore years. Angel was the only student in her class to pursue a service-oriented project. She decided to organize a fundraiser for the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and successfully raised several hundred dollars from her peers and staff at her school.

“We were impressed by Angel's selflessness, and by her ability to identify a need and develop a solution,” said The Sidekick Collective founder Paige Edmiston. “We know she will go on to make a positive impact in the world. She is already making a difference in her Des Moines community.”

This past fall, Angel recognized a need to help keep children in her neighborhood safe while trick-or-treating. She collaborated with a local community organization and recruited her peers to volunteer as crossing guards on Halloween.

“I have been teaching for six years and I have never met a student like her. Angel truly embodies service. She works so hard and shows endless commitment to causes that affect our community. She is genuine and passionate, and I am certain that she will use the award money effectively to fund a meaningful project,” said Mt. Rainier High School teacher Molly Burkhardt.

As a 7th-grader, Angel was the only student in the Highline School District to be selected for Tech Trek, a summer camp for girls interested in technology. She will return this year as a camp counselor, serving as mentor and inspiration to younger students.

In the future, Angel hopes to make a positive impact by serving in the medical field.

Angel did not apply for this recognition. She was nominated without her knowledge by a secret nominator. Each nominee was thoroughly vetted by The Sidekick Collective team for his or her superhero qualities: thinking differently, possessing an exceptionally big heart, having a powerful origin story, and demonstrating incredible courage and fortitude.

In addition to the funding, Angel received a very superhero-y framed proclamation inducting her into the Cosmic Hero fold, as well as a mysterious box filled with items to remind her of her heroism in the future, including a Funko superhero bobblehead and an album by local nerd-rock band and Comic Con celebrities Kirby Krackle.

How did it make you feel to be named a Cosmic Hero?
When I was named Cosmic Hero I was truly surprised because by the time the student body was sitting down for the assembly at school I knew I was receiving some sort of award, but I was not quite sure what it was exactly. I was expecting just a regular school award which were given out weekly at
Friday assemblies. This made receiving the Cosmic Hero Award come as a wonderful honor — it was much bigger than anything I had expected!

How do you plan to use your Cosmic Hero grant?
I plan to use the grant money to buy more plants and seeds for the garden Olympus Gives Back created so we can expand it and grow more fruits and vegetables. We specifically want to use the money to buy fruit bearing trees which we will plant around the school property. The fruits and vegetables grown and harvested will then be given to our local homeless shelter, the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

What inspired you to pick this as your project?
We were inspired to pick this as a project because, as students at a school in downtown Tacoma where there is a relatively large homeless population, we saw many of the challenges and conditions that homeless people faced and we wanted to focus our project around helping those less fortunate. We then combined the aspect of helping the homeless with gardening after seeing how much unused space we had around our school. And with that came the idea of growing fresh produce for the local shelter.

What impact do you hope your project will have?
I hope our project will bring more awareness to homeless and spread the knowledge of the ways and reasons many homeless people end up where they are so that they can be better helped. I also hope for this project to help spread the idea of urban gardening, which has recently started to become popular.

What advice to you have for other students (or adults!) who want to make a difference in their community?
My advice for other students wanting to make a difference in their community is to pick something they are passionate about and do it with other people who are interested. It is much more strenuous and unpleasant when trying to change something you are indifferent about versus something that you truly would love to see change for the better. While it is not bad to try to make a difference on your own, I do strongly advise working with a group. You are stronger as a team and get things done faster and it is overall just more fun to work with other people who care about the same things as you.

Do you think being named a Cosmic Hero has changed how you see yourself, your community, or the world?
Being named a Cosmic Hero did change how I saw myself and my community because it showed me that no matter how small or simple what you are doing may feel personally, there are always people who notice what you are doing and appreciate the change you are striving to make. Olympus Gives Back consists of a small group of high school students growing a garden in the back of their school, but still our efforts and diligence do not go ignored. Winning this award has furthered my strength to continue to work for the change I want to see in the world.

Do you have a favorite superhero?
My favorite superhero is the Flash :)

You’re invited to the most fun, inspiring, moving, and musical benefit concert ever held in the history of the Marvel Universe (or any universe, for that matter). On November 6, 2016, the extraordinary Shannon Curtis will be sharing her SUPERPOWERS with us! Seriously. She's incredible.

No hero saves the world on her own.

Event proceeds support our mission to invest in the superheroes of tomorrow who are walking the halls of schools today. Help us help extraordinary young people turn their big ideas into real-world solutions.

Doors open at 2 p.m. Concert begins promptly at 3 p.m. 

In the wise and wonderful words of Shannon: “We create the world we live in; let’s make something beautiful together.” Join us for an amazing afternoon + support teenage superheroes in their efforts to make our world beautiful.

Get your tickets.