Schools
Whiz Kid: April Comperda Raises Awareness for Teen Suicide Victims
The 17-year-old GHS junior distributes yellow ribbons at a school-wide homeroom this past spring.
2011 started on the worst note possible for Geneva High School junior April Comperda. On Jan. 1, one of her close friends, Dakota Lewis, committed suicide.
“It’s hard, you know?” said Comperda, 17. “But I’ve coped with it.”
Comperda was inspired to create an outlet for her grief in Operation Snowball, a national drug and alcohol prevention program that teaches high school students leadership skills. It was where she had met Lewis, and she wasn’t going to let his death go unnoticed.
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"(I wanted) to do something for him and to help other people, because he was a big part of Snowball, too,” she said.
Comperda launched a schoolwide suicide awareness and prevention campaign. Following in the footsteps of the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program, Comperda invited her friends to help her make yellow ribbons to hand out in school.
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So many students volunteered to help that nobody had to make more than a handful, and when they were finished, Comperda and her friends had made more than 2,000 of them.
They passed them out in classes that spring, and Comperda said she was impressed with how many of her classmates pinned the ribbon on their jeans or their purse or their book bag as a sign of support.
“Some kids who I didn’t think would wear them, wore them,” Comperda said. “So it was really surprising.”
Comperda’s campaign caught the attention of GHS guidance counselor Cathy Pool, who nominated Comperda for in May.
“April is a quiet force at GHS whose work often snowballs into impacting countless students and staff,” said Pool in her nomination. “She truly embodies the (high school’s) ‘Here 4 U’ philosophy in her words, actions and deeds.”
Though her friend’s life ended too soon, for Comperda life goes on. When she graduates next year, she hopes to attend Northern Illinois University. She plans to study clinical psychology so she can help other people win the battle over their thoughts.
Whiz Kid: April Comperda
Whiz Kid’s School: Geneva Community High School
Whiz Kid’s Accomplishment: Assembled and distributed 2,000 yellow ribbons throughout her school to raise awareness for teen suicide victims.
