Yurielis Navarro Jimenez said planning is the key to successfully navigating her busy schedule.

At 17 and a senior at Warren G. Harding High School, she already has college credits under her belt through the College Credit Plus program at Eastern Gateway Community College and Stark State University. At Harding, she is a three-year member of the Poetry Club, Ski Club and Academic Achievers, has participated in the English Festival at Youngstown State University all four years, has been on Student Council for two years, was in the Yearbook Club and Drama Club for two years and participated in track and field.

Her 3.9 GPA, college courses and all of her activities led both of her school counselors and a teacher to nominate Navarro Jimenez for the 2024 Tribune Chronicle Twenty Under 20 award. The program is co-sponsored by Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley and AVI Foodsystems.

Of all her activities, she said Academic Achievers is her favorite because it is through this school organization — a mentoring group that spends six weeks of the summer at YSU participating in academic, professional and enrichment activities — that she got to know her classmates.

She helped her peers with their Spanish homework (she is fluent) and created two murals for YSU over the course of two summers as part of Academic Achievers.

“I enjoy having people I can rely on if I am having trouble with my schoolwork,” Navarro Jimenez said.

She said when she is not in school, she mostly studies and the only time she is not studying is when she is participating in her activities.

One of the people who nominated her was school counselor Sue Mizik, who is a teacher in the Academic Achievers program.

“The place where Yurielis really shines is in small conversations with great depth. Yurielis is a true thinker and has the ability to reflect not only on school culture, but on her ability to influence positive change,” Mizik wrote. “She is a young woman who does not seek the spotlight, but has a soft-spoken quality of leadership that earns her respect among her peers and school faculty alike.”

Navarro Jimenez said she had an idea that Mizik was going to nominate her for the Twenty Under 20 award.

“I was surprised because I thought others would be chosen based on their grades and activities,” she said.

Also nominating her was school counselor Erin Kampf-Melillo, who said Navarro Jimenez “has demonstrated unwavering commitment to her studies, her school community and the broader community, embodying the qualities of a true leader.”

Kampf-Melillo said the student’s volunteer work extends beyond the classroom.

“She has contributed to the setup and organization of major school events, including homecoming and spirit weeks, and she has been involved in service initiatives through the Future Teachers of America and the WGH Renaissance Program. Yurielis has earned numerous accolades for her efforts, including Academic Letters and the Harding High School Academic Excellence Award,” Kampf-Melillo wrote.

A third nomination came from teacher Victoria Midgett, who wrote, “Yurielis is a student who is committed to making a positive impact in her community and growing academically. I am confident that she will continue to excel in her future endeavors.”

Navarro Jimenez plans to become a teacher and wrote on her resume that her objective is “to grow academically to become a student that I would be excited to teach.”