Mira Rizk
Bishop O’Connell High School
When you foster as many interests as Mira Rizk, it’s tough to pin down a career path. Why not just pool them all together and shoot for the stars?
“I always tell everybody I want to be a space doctor because I want to go to space while also being a doctor,” says the University of Virginia-bound senior.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Rizk, 18, was able to marry those passions last summer when a team from Bishop O’Connell’s engineering club entered a NASA/Texas Instruments competition. The challenge: invent something to help improve the lives of International Space Station astronauts.
“We created a space pillow, which basically would provide the astronauts with the feel of a pillow from home,” she explains, “while also triggering fans that would take away excess CO2 from around their heads.” Her team placed in the top 25 in the 2020 competition.
While working on the ISS might be her dream job, the McLean teen developed a deep interest in medicine closer to home when her diabetic father underwent open-heart surgery two years ago. “It was a really intense procedure, and the recovery was very long, but I was able to help him through it,” Rizk says. “I found out that caregiving was something that I genuinely love.”
Grateful that her parents, who are from Lebanon, worked so hard to provide her with so many opportunities, the honors student (she finished her senior year with a 4.6 GPA) likes to give back whenever possible. Just Sweets Bakery, the nonprofit online bakery she started last summer with her cousin—featuring goodies ranging from muffins to madeleines—donated $2,000 to the Lebanon Red Cross and $800 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She also belongs to the Keyettes service club, makes grocery and soup deliveries to people who are homebound or homeless, and founded the Outdoors Club at her school.
Rizk says her parents have sometimes urged her to pare down her activities, concerned about overload. But she remains undaunted: “I just find myself never really wanting to stop.” –Rina Rapuano
Many thanks to our 2021 Selection Committee members for their help and guidance with this year’s Extraordinary Teen Awards:
Lisa Fikes, acting president & CEO, Leadership Center for Excellence | Volunteer Arlington
Whytni Kernodle, founder & principal, Global Goddess Enterprises; co-founder & president, Black Parents of Arlington
Troy Cogburn, AVP for enrollment, Marymount University
Lizzette Arias, former executive director, The Dream Project
Greg Hamilton, publisher & co-founder, Arlington Magazine