Stacy Carrizales, a senior at Phoenix Middle College, has been accepted to the Bank of America Student Leaders Program. The program connects more than 300 community-minded high school juniors and seniors from nearly 100 communities to employment opportunities, skills development and community service.

The selectees are awarded eight-week paid summer internships with nonprofits such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Habitat for Humanity.

Stacy applied to the program in hopes of encouraging others to leave their comfort zone and to stop being afraid of failing and to start doing.

“Many of my peers do not apply to programs because they get discouraged by the competitive application progress,” she said. “I applied my junior year to this program and was devastated when I didn’t get accepted. I could have stopped there but I decided to try again my senior year. Now, I can officially say I’ve been selected as a 2020 Bank of America Student Leader."

Stacy continued: "I am also dying to share and make memories with people who are thinking of the future and not just the present. I wish to be a part of something big, I want to change the world and I will do so one step at a time.”