Isabella Kennedy, 17, said she has been raised on two words in her life: charity and imagination.
That emphasis from her father, Jim Kennedy, propelled the rising senior at Walsingham Academy, Williamsburg, to be involved in her school’s service projects, as well as in her community.
Isabella, who lives in Toano with her parents and grandmother, is co-chair of the James City County Youth Advisory Council. The council serves the community in myriad ways, including leading fundraisers to benefit community organizations, running a food pantry to benefit Williamsburg residents, collecting coats for the homeless and disadvantaged people in the community, and “serving as the middleman” for the donation of coats and winter clothing to victims of earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.
As council co-chair, she is spearheading an effort, currently in the proposal stage, for a teen arts center in which community members from ages 12 to 19 can display their poetry, writing, drawing, sculpting and painting. The center would also offer classes on writing, drawing and painting.
Isabella is also head of business and marketing of the Williamsburg Area Thirst Project, part of an international organization which works with partners across the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa to provide wells and water systems to impoverished communities.
Additionally, she is working with a fellow student on setting up a website designed to bolster teen economic literacy, and she is a tutor.
At Walsingham, she helps with service and fundraising projects, is an ambassador giving tours to new Upper School students, is president of the forensic team, and is coaching elementary and middle-school students on “how to gain their own voice.”
“Everything that she does for her service I believe is coming from compassion and genuineness of heart,” said Kristina Roxas-Miller, her theology teacher last school year. “She is one of those remarkable students who lives out and practices her faith, not only by praying and reflecting on her values, but also through service, because everyone can see how she puts her whole dedication and effort into being part of the community.”
Isabella said she doesn’t volunteer to “check a box on a résumé,” but does so because she enjoys it and because God calls her to do so.
“Being Catholic has made me realize that there are bigger things out there than myself,” she said.
“That’s something that we see a lot in modern media, and that’s something I get caught up in sometimes, where I get so worried over something – like a test or what I’m going to do on the weekend, those kind of things – that I forget that this is a huge planet, and there’s so much that we can do in it, and it’s not just about me,” said Isabella.
“It’s not about any one person. It’s about solidarity,” she added. “It’s about unity. It’s about helping others.”
Isabella divulged that in the past, her faith has wavered as she wondered why “things have happened,” such as “school shootings, poverty, totalitarian regimes and how some people are suffering so much.” That faith is stronger now.
“This is where I have to believe that God has a plan for this, because if not, we just become kind of meaningless, and you focus on the negative,” she said. “But this way, you have to realize that all this suffering is for something, and that he gives his worst battles to his toughest and strongest soldiers.”
“The suffering has to be for a bigger picture,” she added. “It has to be, eventually, to help others, and to make this world the best that it can be. Because if you focus on the negatives, you’re not going to get anywhere in life. You have to believe and have faith.”
She said her introduction to service work came when she was a preschooler, when she innocently asked her father why people were hungry when the family was in the food business. This prompted him to sponsor a Christmas party for the homeless and disadvantaged in one of his restaurants. They fed “three rounds” of people in the restaurant during the party, and local businesses participated in a variety of ways, such as pitching in to provide Christmas gifts.
She credits her love for community service and desire “to be the best version of myself that I believe I can be” to both Walsingham’s emphasis on caring for others and her father’s background and his efforts to make the world a better place.
Her father grew up in poverty, becoming homeless when he was 15. Working three jobs, he managed to graduate high school. He joined the Navy, which allowed him to go to college, the first in his family to graduate. Later, he was on the James City County Board of Supervisors, owned several restaurants in the Toano/Williamsburg area, and now owns a food truck on which Isabella works. While working, Isabella says they give food to the homeless whenever they ask.
Isabella, who takes a number of advanced placement courses and carries a grade point average over 4.0, was inducted in the National Honor Society her junior year. This summer, she has a virtual internship for creative writing with Stanford University, a scholarship for debate camp at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and was the representative for the American Legion Auxiliary’s annual Girls State program at Longwood University, Farmville.