Kids Corner: Redoaune Laalioui

This week, America SCORES New England is showcasing the community service work of Redouane Laalioui, a student at the Irving Middle School and member of the SCORES Leadership Team.

On March 24th, Redouane was honored with the Kennedy Library’s “Make a Difference Award”, an award that is given to students who are nominated by teachers, principals and other community leaders for contributions they have made to their neighborhood, town or community.

Redouane has been involved as a volunteer (in addition to being a student-athlete) with ASNE for approximately a year and a half. During this time, Redouane has served as a mentor for the younger participants in our elementary school program in addition to volunteering as a referee, teaching younger students the rules of soccer, and acting as a role model. Because of his ability to connect with younger players and his willingness to help the SCORES program meet its mission, Redouane was chosen to become a member of the Leadership Team, a group of selected student athletes made-up of middle school students who best embody the SCORES values of Leadership, Teamwork, and Commitment. Though community service is not a required component of the Leadership Team’s activities (which are mainly focused on the cultivation of leadership skills), this group of 15 determined students consistently works together to promote causes that they care about. Most recently, Redouane and his peers in the Leadership Team planned a “Walk for Haiti” in order to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti. Redouane was the Leadership Team’s top-distance runner, running a total 9 miles during the event.

Redouane is fairly new to the country, having moved from Morocco at age 10 and has made learning English a major priority. The road that Redouane has traveled to get to where he is now, both in terms of his strong academic performance and his personable social interactions, has been a challenging one. Despite the challenges of moving to a new country and learning a new language, however, Redouane has never lost his focus. In order to overcome such obstacles, Redouane persevered and stayed focused on what was important. In 7th grade, he became his SCORES’ team captain and has continued to spend his free afternoons (and there aren’t many!) giving back to our program and to his community