Teen Juggles Her Work, Travel, Volunteerism for Good Balance

By Jenna Spinelle

Teen of the Week

JENNA SPINELLE

You might have seen Tina Burkhart working in a game booth at Dutch Wonderland this summer.

Or you might have seen Burkhart and her classmates picking up trash on the side of the road.

Or maybe you saw her baby-sitting children at Clare House.

Burkhart, a 17-year-old senior at Conestoga Valley High School, divides her busy schedule between working and volunteering.

But that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little fun now and then.

Burkhart and her classmates from a British literature class she’ll take this fall traveled to England for eight days in July.

While there, they saw three shows and visited Oxford University to see where a segment of the latest Harry Potter movie was filmed.

She described her first trip outside the United States as “amazing” and said she would love to travel abroad again to explore Germany, Italy and France.

As a member of her school’s drama club and concert choir, seeing performances of “Fiddler on the Roof,”"Macbeth” and “39 Steps” was right up Burkhart’s alley.

As for English, she’s not so sure it’s in her future. Burkhart writes poems and short stories for CV’s literary arts magazine.

“I like writing, but I wouldn’t major in English,” she said.

Burkhart plans to study elementary education in college.

She lives in Brownstown with her mother, Teresa, a secretary at Brownstown Elementary School, and sister, Tammy, a 21-year-old student at Lock Haven University. Her father, Tim, lives in Pittsburgh.

Burkhart volunteers for such projects as trash pickups and car washes with the high school student council and Interact club.

She also spends time at Lancaster’s Clare House, volunteering as a baby-sitter for mothers who are attending classes.

She hopes the experience of working with young children will help her prepare for a career as a teacher.

Burkhart is also involved on the school’s spirit committee, but this group of 15 students isn’t about putting up streamers for the homecoming game.

Instead, they tackle racism in school.

“We look at how people judge each other and try to encourage each other to stop judging by first impression,” she said.

Burkhart said this was a difficult lesson for her to learn and an even more difficult one to share with her friends.

“It’s hard to change yourself, but it’s even harder to change others,” she said.

Burkhart is a member of her school’s Club Ophelia, a group of female students who mentor middle school girls.

“We talk about things like self-esteem and bullying,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to know that I am helping them get over those issues.”

When she’s not volunteering at school or in the community, Burkhart says she likes to spend time with her family and friends.

The teenager said she works hard to balance all of her activities with a part-time job at Old Navy during the school year, limiting her employment schedule to three nights per week.

“It can be difficult when I’ve got play rehearsal after school and then work after and then homework to do after that,” she said. “But I try to make everything work.”

She’s eager to start college next year, but the lifelong Brownstown resident said she will not forget about her home.

“I would like to go somewhere that’s far enough away, but not too far that I can’t come home for a weekend if I wanted to,” she said.

(c) 2007 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.