Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior Uxue Sansinena April 23 on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as her parents Virginia Olazabal and Josemari Sansinena, share the moment with LAHS teacher Louise Foliot at Cottonwood on the Greens. Photo by Oliver Morris
On April 23 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented Uxue Sansinena, a Los Alamos High School junior with aDistinguished Student of Service award. Uxue is indeed one who has made service part of her life and she is a very well-rounded student. Uxue is a lieutenant governor on the Arizona-New Mexico-El Paso district board for Key Club International, and the vice president of the National Honor Society, as well as a student director on the Los Alamos Public Foundation board and a member of the Rotary Interact Club, the Mu Alpha Theta math honor society and the French Club. She is a Lincoln Douglas Debate captain on the Hilltalkers Speech and Debate Team.
Uxue was the 2021 State Champion in Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate, the 2022 and 2024 Bronze Medalist in Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate, as well as a two-time district champion and National Qualifier. In addition to these activities Uxue has been playing the saxophone for 7 years and she is also a drum major for the Topper Marching band, having participated in the North Central all-region honor band for New Mexico for the past five years and All-State in 2022 and 2023.
In her essay Uxue shared with the Club one of the challenges facing today’s youth; namely the prevalence of drug use, particularly fentanyl. In her essay Uxue talked about her efforts with the Key Club helping to plan and organize a fentanyl harm reduction event called “How to Save a Life.” This event educated local teens about the harms of fentanyl, taught them how to administer Narcan, exposed them to stories of people who lost loved ones due to an overdose, and provided resources such as free Narcan.. Uxue described “How to Save a Life” as follows,
“While students are told about drugs and abstinence is always expressed as the way to avoid drug related instances, it is an unfortunate reality that teens are involved with substances and need support and resources to help them manage their use and educate themselves on how to end their addictions. How to Save a Life was the first step towards that goal and I believe that I was able to make a positive contribution to the health of teens in this community through the planning and execution of this event,” she said.
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Uxue for her service to the youth in Los Alamos.
When receiving the award Uxue was joined by her mother Virginia Olazabal , her father Josemari Sansinena, and LAHS teacher Louise Foliot, who nominated her for the award. Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle conducted the award ceremony.