St. Joseph CHS senior serves community as ambassador

Friday, Sep. 04, 2015

OGDEN — Saint Joseph Catholic High School senior Maria Rios has been chosen as the leader of the 2015-2016 SJCHS student ambassadors.

The ambassadors represent the school at community functions and also serve as peer mentors to their classmates, underclassmen and international students.

“Maria is a natural leader and organizer,” said St. Joseph Schools’ President Joanna Wheelton. “Her experiences with multiple languages and multiple cultures, as she came from Honduras to the U.S. in the third grade, gives her a depth that many other students do not have. This made her perfect as the leader of our school ambassadors, who are asked to go out in the community, represent the school, and help other students and underclassmen.” 

SJCHS teacher Jay Hart said that Rios “was one of the most natural and effective teachers I’ve ever seen” during a summer program at St. Joseph to help 17 new international students from China learn English and adapt to American customs. 

“She was marvelous,” Hart said, “and she brought our guests out of their shell. She introduced herself and her American classmates, informing everyone that she was an immigrant to this country so she understood how difficult English was. Soon the two groups bantered, laughed, and asked and answered questions of each other. ”

Rios enjoys acting as an ambassador, and sees the needs of her community, saying “it’s our duty to help” until each student understands. 

“We have so many exchange students, and often they don’t understand something and the teacher cannot get it across to them,” so student ambassadors can assist in these situations, she said. 

“Being a student ambassador fits Maria well,” SJCHS teacher Alicia Behnken said. “Around the school, I see her welcoming new students; if she sees that someone needs something or is left out, she makes sure to help them, and throughout the year she checks in with those students to make sure that they are doing well in school.”

Rios credits her ability to aid other students, especially international students, to her 2012 experience as teen ambassador for People to People International, an organization dedicated to enhancing global understanding and friendship through travel. 

During her time with the organization, she stayed with a family in Ulm, Germany and traveled around Europe with other young adults from the United States.

“It was so eye-opening and incredible,” Rios said. “The trip was about meeting new people, making new connections, learning their cultures and language, and putting aside stereotypes and historical conflicts. I had to learn how to be with different people, sharing our ideas together while still keeping my own beliefs, my morals and values, and always listening to them. It is about give and take, and the trip taught me that to enact change, we must put aside differences and work together.” 

Rios plans to continue that dream of making connections across cultures, according to Behnken. “Maria has big dreams and she is working hard to achieve those dreams. I have no doubt that some day Maria will be very successful and that she will continue to inspire those around her, including me,” she said.

Rios says that her time in Europe with People to People would not have been possible without the recommendation of one of her St. Joseph Elementary School teachers and the skills that were instilled in her at the school. 

“The trip made me feel more open to things, and made me desire to learn much more,” she said. “Here at St. Joe’s they nurture and encourage that desire to explore the world. I already had that spark, but the trip and my time as an ambassador lit it up like a wildfire.”