MBHS student earns Prudential Spirit of Community Award

For Ellie Lipp, volunteering is all about following her passion. She just happens to have a lot of passions.

Lipp, now a junior at Mountain Brook High School, first started volunteering when she was 12 years old as an instructor for beginner classes at her dance school. She later became involved with different clubs at school and realized she wanted to work with special education students.

“When I got to my high school … I saw that there was kind of a separation between the special education students and the entire student body,” she said. To help foster friendships, Lipp decided to work through the MBHS club, Circle of Friends.

Circle of Friends is a club dedicated to helping special education students develop relationships through buddy programs, monthly breakfast or lunch socials, playing games and going bowling, Lipp said.

Lipp soon started the Circle of Friends Celebration Week and was elected president of the club as a sophomore — a title she still holds today.

“It’s really been a great experience,” she said. “I’ve gained some of the best friends that I’ll probably ever have.”

Lipp also actively works with the Circle of Friends program Project Outreach, which brings in students to the special education classrooms to spend time together, as well as the club’s annual fundraiser, Shooting to Change. But through of all this, she is growing, too.

“By becoming involved in this program … I also see the flaws in how our community and how society communicates between these two groups,” Lipp said. “This entire experience has really helped me develop my communication skills, and I’ve learned each person communicates different from the other.”

She said learning more about differences in communication has helped her lead classes at her dance studio where she still volunteers and competes as an Irish dancer, as well as in social justice situations during her volunteering with the YWCA social justice programs.

“It [volunteering] is not always rewarding; a lot of times, it’s frustrating and tedious,” she said. “But it’s an amazing experience, and ultimately you develop the best relationships.”

Recently, Lipp was acknowledged for the hard work she has done in her community by earning the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for the state of Alabama.

As a state honoree, Lipp received $1,000 with an engraved silver medallion as well as a paid trip to Washington, D.C., with a parent to join the other 50 high school and middle school students who were chosen to represent their states in May. 

“To be recognized, I think it’s given me a ton of confidence in what I’m doing,” Lipp said. “Sometimes, it can feel like you’re advocating for something else no one really cares about. To even have been considered was a great accomplishment, and to have the opportunity to represent my school, community, and state is very exciting.”

If she is chosen as one of the five high school national honorees, Lipp will receive $5,000, a gold medallion and an additional $5,000 to put toward the organization of her choice.

While volunteering may be an extracurricular activity for now, Lipp said she hopes to continue with her passions, possibly even through the World Health Organization.

“I love medicine, and I love biology, but I also really love special education and government really,” she said.

Lipp said she’d eventually like to make laws to help people who can’t really communicate for themselves.

“That’s my ultimate goal, is to be able to do this for the rest of my life,” she said.