Sophie Ranen, a junior at The Bryn Mawr School for girls in Baltimore, Maryland, has assumed a variety of leadership roles both in and outside the institution. A consistent honor roll member throughout her studies at Bryn Mawr, Sophie Ranen received the Outstanding Scholar-Athlete Award in both her freshman and sophomore years. The school awarded her the Julia McHenry Howard Award for outstanding citizenship in 2009. Also in 2009, she participated in the Science and Technology series at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

The school’s Community Service Learning (CSL) organization works with other on-campus groups and individuals to create opportunities for the school community to engage in various service activities. Sophie Ranen won election as Secretary/Treasurer of CSL. She also serves her fellow students as a Peer Tutor in the Bryn Mawr Resource Center. As an eighth grader, Sophie Ranen earned a leadership role in the Bryn Mawr School Ambassadors Club, in which she coordinated visits for prospective students and their parents, participated in reception events for these visitors, and led question and answer sessions for them as well. She strived to help make the office of admissions a welcoming place for prospective students and parents.

Outside Bryn Mawr, Sophie Ranen has tutored outstanding students at Guilford Elementary and Middle School to prepare them for the National Academic League championship. In her freshman year, she won a spot in the highly competitive Harvard Model United Nations for the duration of her time in high school. She began attending in her sophomore year, the first year she was eligible, as a member of the World Trade Organization Committee. At the conference in January 2011, she plans to serve on the Human Rights Committee in the Model UN. Sophie Ranen enjoys working in these committees because she is interested in how international trade affects human rights for people around the world. She also co-captained the Bryn Mawr team that competed at the 27th annual Chemathon hosted by the University of Maryland, where her team placed sixth out of 20 entrants from the Mid-Atlantic region.

For all three of her high school years thus far, the school has chosen Sophie Ranen as a representative to the annual Baltimore Student Diversity Leadership Conference. The school sponsors an annual Un-Thanksgiving Food Drive as a benefit for the Maryland Food Bank, and Sophie Ranen has served on the leadership team for that drive the past three years as well. She has also participated in lobbying the Maryland state legislature on behalf of the homeless. She joined the leadership team this year for Bryn Mawr’s American Red Cross blood donor drive.