Sheyla Medina Cruz, a senior at Amityville Memorial High School,...

Sheyla Medina Cruz, a senior at Amityville Memorial High School, has been chosen as Junior Achievement Ambassador for the 2022-2023 school year. Credit: Amityville School District

An Amityville Memorial High School student is spreading the importance of financial literacy.

Sheyla Medina Cruz, a senior, has been chosen to serve as a Student of the Year Ambassador for the 2022-23 school year by Junior Achievement of New York, a nonprofit organization that strives to give youth the knowledge and skills they need for economic success.

The designation comes with a $1,000 scholarship as well as the opportunity to speak at the nonprofit’s annual dinner, attend meetings of its board of directors, and be profiled in its newsletter and on its website, among other things.

“I was very excited to be chosen,” Cruz said. “Junior Achievement teaches things that high school doesn’t really teach and brings it to the younger ones in the community — not just the high school students.”

Cruz, 17, was selected to be one of a handful of ambassadors statewide after ranking in the top five out of more than 100 students competing to be the nonprofit’s Student of the Year, a designation that went to Maiya Adolphus of Baldwin High School. The process included a series of interviews and a presentation to executive board at Junior Achievement.

Cruz is also a member of her school’s Key Club and National, World Language and Social Studies honor societies; she also participates in Farmingdale State College’s Smart Scholars Program, which offers college credit classes to high schoolers.

 — MICHAEL R. EBERT
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