The 8th Brookline Youth Awards selected Sabrina Zhou as the 2018 Brookline Youth of the Year on April 11. The Brookline Youth Awards, held annually at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, provides an opportunity for Brookline residents to hear about the character, challenges, and dreams of its young people, as well as adults dedicated to their advancement, through the power and intimacy of video interviews. The April 11 event honored 61 students and four adults.

This year the Youth Awards Nominating Committee selected 6 Youth of the Year Finalists. This years finalists joining Sabrina Zhou were Carolyn Parker-Fairbain, Jocelyn Zhou, Lena Harris, Paul Miller-Schmidt and Vishni Samaraweera.

A junior at BHS, Sabrina serves as News Editor for the Brookline High School newspaper, The Sagamore. She will also become the next president of the Asian Pacific American Club. Sabrina is an active member of Steps to Success and the Minority Student Achievement Network. She has volunteered for the Brookline Fire Department, Brookline Interactive Group, and the Brookline Rotary. Sabrina has a strong academic record while taking a rigorous course load.

Above all, it was Sabrina’s character and courage that inspired the nomination committee to select her as this year’s Youth of the Year. Sabrina received her award to thunderous applause. In her video interview, Sabrina courageously shares her determination to break her family’s cycle of poverty so that she can pave the way for her two younger brothers, who are in 3rd grade and kindergarten.

Sabrina’s video interview is perhaps the most powerful and compelling of any in the last eight years of the Brookline Youth Awards.

“What makes all of Sabrina’s accomplishments that much more impressive, but what does not come out on paper, or in a report card is also the thing that is immune to societal schisms like poverty or privilege,” said Eric Schiff, Sabrina’s BHS Guidance Counselor.” It’s called charisma, and Sabrina has it in droves. Regardless of where her accomplishments and accolades take her, Sabrina will emerge the leader, the role model; the voice of her peers that she has been ever since coming to Brookline High School.”

By R. Harvey Bravman, Publisher