Honor Pereslete from Vermont is an amazing woman at 18 years of age. She is active in High School, in drama and choir, and hopes to someday be a performer. Her goals are to further her education in law, as well as in music and dance. Her GPA is 3.4 and she has achieved the honor roll in school each year.

Honor has an unusual story, in the fact that she submitted herself into the foster care system at the age of 16 to escape an abusive home. She was then placed with a foster parent, who was an adoptive mother of her good friend and her friend’s brother. She made her home with them but her solace was abruptly brought to a halt at age seventeen when she began to experience sexual abuse.

She feared telling anyone but as the abuse continued, she confided in her friend who was also a victim. Honor told her foster mother. Honor was removed for her own safety from the home she once loved, and the town and people in her life. After another abusive placement, she is back in her hometown and will continue with her education after graduating from High School, supporting herself with a job, and living independently in an apartment for students.

Throughout her schooling, she has been a natural leader in class, dance, and choir. She loves to help others, and feels if she can then she should. She feels she has many experiences in her young life that she can use to help encourage other foster children with. As a foster child, she will be able to help the foster care system with her insight, and believes one of the most important things a foster child can learn is to express themselves, their feelings, and to know that others really do care and have the ability to change things and offer new directions for them.

Honor has volunteered in making new hiking trails in her town. She has had the honor of qualifying for the district chorus for Vermont two years in a row, while also qualifying for the state choir for two years. She has received the Class Musician Award in middle school. Honor has a story to tell of new beginnings in her life which she attributes to the foster care system.

State(s)
Team(s) or Cohort(s)
2012 Outstanding Young Leaders
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