Ellie CarterEllie Carter, a junior at Ridgefield High School, has always believed in the importance of leadership, public speaking, and hard work. She channels these values into everything she does, from her schoolwork to her personal life.
Ellie currently serves as the Chief of Leadership Staff for the orchestra program at Ridgefield High School, as well as the Regional VP of Community Service of the CT Valley Region of BBYO, an international Jewish teen movement. She has volunteered – and eventually worked – as a student mentor teacher at her temple’s religious school, teaching the Hebrew language and Jewish culture in a total of ten elementary and middle school-aged classes since seventh grade. In addition, she has held several positions for the Ridgefield chapter of the National Charity League, such as Recording Secretary, Membership Chair, Sunshine Committee, and Tic Tac Council. Ellie is also a member of the International Business Internship Program, where she works to help a salon owner in Nigeria grow and expand her business along with several other Ridgefield teens. These leadership positions have all helped her learn valuable life skills and allowed her to get more involved in programs that she is passionate about. Ellie began her public speaking career on the ERMS debate team, where she and her two partners quickly found themselves at home. In their first major state tournament, she was ranked the top middle school debater in Connecticut, and her team came ranked second in the state, qualifying them for a tournament in New York. When they succeeded there, they then advanced to the regional championships in New Jersey, where they placed sixth out of almost 300 people from 4 different states. In both of those tournaments, Ellie was individually recognized as an outstanding speaker as well, placing 2nd and 21st respectively. These achievements motivated her to try out for the mock trial and debate teams at the high school, where she is now an A team mock trial lawyer as well as a varsity debater and team captain. Ellie has been able to keep up with her busy and rewarding schedule through pure hard work, which shows through in her schoolwork as well as her extracurriculars. For example, during her freshman and sophomore years she achieved high honor roll all four quarters, and through National Charity League, she has received the gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award multiple times for accumulating over 100 hours of community service per year. She is dedicated and passionate about everything that she does, and cannot wait to apply that passion to Ms President US this year as Junior Board VP. |