South Portland High School senior Hannah Dunphy has been awarded a WCSH 6 “Teens Who Care” award. Dunphy is one of only seven teens chosen – from among 78 nominated teens – by a panel of community leaders to receive the annual award for volunteerism and community service. Dunphy and the other award recipients will be honored at a reception on April 11.
She was nominated twice, by friends of the family and by two teachers at South Portland High School. Craig Furbush, Dunphy AP English teacher, said he felt compelled to nominate her for this year’s award.
“Hannah’s efforts as a teenager have truly been unique,” wrote Furbush in the letter nominating Dunphy. “I really admire the quiet way she has brought both my attention, and the attention of so many of her schoolmates, to so many international causes over the past year. … She really is exactly the sort of young person that the award seems to be designed to recognize.”
Dunphy is the founder of the South Portland High School chapter of Amnesty International, a group she has been heavily involved in for the past two years. She is also the state coordinator for the organization, which means she oversees all high school and college chapters in Maine. She was vital in beginning a Student World Assembly group at South Portland High School, the first high school in the world to have such a chapter.
Dunphy is passionate about dancing and will use the $1,000 scholarship from the award to pursue her dancing next year in New York City.
“I’m certainly happy I can represent Amnesty International and other human rights causes through this award,” Dunphy said. “I hope it will help motivate people to not just be concerned, but to get up and do something about it.”
Tom Hyland, the school’s Amnesty International advisor and the other teacher who nominated her, spoke highly of Dunphy’s role as a leader of the South Portland High School chapter of Amnesty International. “Her dedication, discipline and desire to make the world a better place are infectious,” he said.
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