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Nicole Tobia, a senior at Wantagh High School, recently collected...

Nicole Tobia, a senior at Wantagh High School, recently collected dozens of new and used educational texts for children in the foster care system.  Credit: Susan Tobia

A Wantagh High School student is trying to help children in the foster care system get the supplies they need to prepare for college.

Nicole Tobia, a senior, recently collected dozens of new and used educational texts — including SAT and ACT preparatory books — and used them to set up a mini-library at the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, where her aunt Cait Mullen works as a lawyer. She collected the books by posting flyers and placing a collection box in her school and at the Wantagh Public Library.

Tobia, 17, also purchased a tablet that contains a series of five-minute podcasts she created to explain how to perform tasks ranging from filling out college applications to obtaining fee waivers for the SAT.

"I was talking to my aunt and she was telling me how sometimes when she’s in her office, she will have kids there for a long time as she’s working on paperwork," Tobia said. "To provide them with the resources to help them reach their full potential was really the main goal of my project."

Tobia, a Girl Scout, pursued the project as part of her Gold Award, which is the highest achievement attainable within the Girl Scouts of the USA. She is a member of Troop 3440. 

Tobia is also president of her class and vice-president of her school’s Student Council, as well as president of the International Thespian Society and a member of the National Honor Society. She has also appeared in all of her school’s musicals since freshman year. 

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