Adria came to Arlington, VA in August having left her hometown of El Paso, TX in order to begin a much needed fresh start in her life. Within her first 3 weeks of living in a completely new city that, she has been helping with administrative work at Casa Chirilagua, completing intern tasks at Partners of the Americas, a non-profit organization in DC, and gaining employment as a restaurant hostess. And she’s only senior in high school. She lives with her cousins in Arlington who told her about Casa Chirilagua and suggested she begin volunteering there. The more she learned about Casa Chirilagua, the more she wanted to get involved. Her charisma and positive attitude won the hearts of the Casa staff as well as the kids in Kids Club. Adria lights up with a huge smile when she talks about Kids Club, especially Nathan, whom she thinks is the smartest 3rd grader she’s ever met. She helps with Kids Club from Mondays through Fridays, assists with the Monday night 4th/5th grade Girls Bible study, but more importantly, she has decided to make Casa Chirilagua the main focus for her senior project. This requires her to extensively research Casa Chirilagua, the programs and its staff in order to present her finished project to her teacher and peers. Adria’s hard work and youthful joy have made her such a pleasure to have at Casa Chirilagua, and that is why she’s our volunteer of the month!