|
|
November 2, 2001/Cheshvan 16, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 8
Local teen serves on international board
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Steven Baker of Scottsdale has been elected to the international post of Grand Aleph S'gan - international vice president - of Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA), the boys' component of B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, for the 2001-2002 year.
Baker, 17, is a senior at Horizon High School. He has been an active member of the Felix Frankfurter chapter of AZA since he was a freshman.
In addition to having held several positions in his AZA chapter, Baker has also served as Mountain Region vice president and is currently Mountain Region president. The region, made up of both AZA and B'nai B'rith Girls (BBG) chapters in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, is one of 42 BBYO chapters nationwide.
As international vice president, Baker will be responsible for communication with vice presidents from each of the regions. As regional president, Baker corresponds with each of the chapters in the region and oversees regional programming. Altogether, he says he spends about 10 hours per week on his responsibilities for BBYO.
Baker says his favorite part of BBYO is the fact that all meetings, events and conventions are youth-led.
"Everything that we do, we plan. It's our ideas and we take all of the steps that need to be done in order to get everything done," he explains. "If we want to go to a water park, we make all of the phone calls - we get everything together."
Although he enjoys all the BBYO events, he says conventions are his favorite.
"I love conventions (and) all the planning that goes into conventions. It's a lot of work and it's very stressful, but when you see everyone else having a good time and it's all done with, it feels good," he says.
Baker, a member of National Honor Society, works 10 hours a week at a local law office - Blunt & Associates - as a file clerk. He also teaches Spanish to first-graders at Desert Spring Elementary School one afternoon per week.
He is the son of Maxine and Dennis Baker. His sister, Jennifer, 20, attends Trinity University in San Antonio.
Baker has applied to Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. He plans to study business finance or psychology.
For information about BBYO, call 480-443-2741.
|
